On Monday, speaking at a COVID-19 press conference, California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom bristled when a reporter asked him if his decision to end stay-at-home orders was made for political reasons, as a huge recall movement has been launched to remove Newsom from office.
Newsom opened the press conference by announcing, “Effective immediately, all the regions in the state of California, recall there are five regions that we have defined when we established our stay-at-home order last month, all regions effective immediately are no longer in the stay-at-home order and will move back into the blueprint, a blueprint many of you are familiar with, the blueprint we refer to as a blueprint for a safer economy.”
Fox 11 reporter Elex Michaelson asked, “First, an informational question about the My Turn app. Is that something that people in Los Angeles and San Diego counties can download now in the app store or Google play? How does somebody get that? And secondly, a broader question just to give you a chance to respond to critics, because you know the critics are saying this online, that this decision today comes amidst a recall campaign, comes amidst lawsuits, and they say that the timing on this is arbitrary and convenient based off of that. I want to give you a chance to respond to people that are saying that.”
Newsom snapped, “Yeah, that’s just complete utter nonsense, so let’s just dispense with that. Fundamental foundationally nonsense, so that’s number one. Number two, take a look at the website. If you Google … Forgive me. Bing, whatever your … Yahoo. If you look up, go online to My Turn, you’ll find ‘My Turn COVID’ may be the first thing that prompts up. You can learn more about this on the covid19.ca.gov website, but ‘My Turn COVID,’ should you learn more about that, get that information. LA should be promoting it themselves as well as San Diego beginning to promote this pilot project. Started about a week ago down in LA, later in the week in San Diego.”
“Complete, utter nonsense…”
Gov. Newsom responds to my ? about critics who claim he’s ending stay at home orders due to growing political & legal pressures, including the recall efforts.
He says ICU projections & dropping hospitalizations led to the change in policy. pic.twitter.com/Y9GZHpm5In
— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) January 26, 2021
As The Daily Wire reported on Monday, the organizers of a recall petition to oust Newsom from office said they had surpassed 1.2 million signatures. If 1.5 million Californians sign on, a recall will go to a statewide vote. The Daily Wire noted:
The “Recall Gavin Newsom” campaign, which sells merchandise like coronavirus face shields emblazoned with the slogan, in December won a court case to extend the signature deadline from Nov. 17. A Superior Court judge ruled that the pandemic hurt efforts to circulate petitions. Rescue CA, one of the recall organizers, wants to get to 2 million signatures, as the state’s secretary of state has confirmed that only 84% of the signatures are valid. …
Newsom’s regulations in November put 41 of the state’s 58 counties in the most restrictive of the four-tier system, which affects 37 million residents. The move stopped reopening plans, banned indoor worship, shut down many businesses and closed schools.
Days later, Newsom and his wife attended a birthday party with a dozen friends at the expensive French Laundry restaurant in Napa, north of San Francisco. The governor said the dinner, for a lobbyist friend, was outdoors, but pictures told a different story.