Just one week after declaring that he would extend a statewide “state of emergency” order, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) left for a vacation to Mexico with his family, as reported by the Daily Caller.
Newsom, his wife Jennifer, and their children left the state on Monday, and will not return until November 28th. On November 15th, Newsom signed another executive order extending numerous restrictions and other “emergency” measures that he first implemented in March of 2020, as the Chinese coronavirus first began to spread in the United States. Under his latest order, the rules and restrictions now will not expire until March of next year, with the added possibility that they may be arbitrarily extended again.
Despite some of the heaviest restrictions in the nation, including mask and vaccine requirements, California continues to see some of the highest rates of COVID-19 cases out of all the other states. In early November, California saw twice as many new cases as Florida, a state with virtually no restrictions remaining.
Among other measures, California has forced all K-12 students to get a vaccine in order to attend school. Some areas of California, such as San Francisco, require proof of vaccination before entering any private businesses, even for potential customers as young as five years old.
And yet Newsom himself has defied many of his own restrictions. In November of 2020, Newsom was photographed at a large dinner party in the San Francisco-based French Laundry, one of the most expensive restaurants in the state, with everyone grouped together and wearing no masks indoors; among the attendees were lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry, which drew further outrage from California voters.
The backlash against Newsom culminated in a recall election against him in September. Only the fourth recall election in American history, Newsom ultimately prevailed against a handful of prominent Republican challengers, with the frontrunner being longtime talk radio host Larry Elder. With 62 percent of voters choosing to keep Newsom in office, Newsom became only the second governor in American history to survive a recall election, after Wisconsin’s Scott Walker (R-Wisc.) in 2012.