Governor Punishes Orange County for Opening Beaches, Spares the Rest of California

California Governor Gavin Newsom grinned at reporters during his news conference Thursday at which he was expected to announce he would close all California beaches. But he faked them out.

As we reported here, Fox News LA was given a memo leaked by statewide law enforcement and sent to county leaders ordering a shutdown of all parks and beaches in the state of California on Friday.

Asked about the memo, Newsom said with a smile, “That was their memo, but that memo never got to me.”

So now that we’ve gotten Newsom’s trial balloon out of the way and he backed off a statewide closure, what still remains is a callow governor who ignored science and let fake news guide him in closing the beaches from San Onofre to Seal Beach.

As I explained, the move to close Orange County beaches was prompted by one photograph making the rounds on Twitter over the weekend that showed dense crowds. While lifeguards said people at Newport Beach, where the telephoto shot was taken, were practicing social distancing, the outrage over the photo prompted an emergency meeting of the City Council and copious complaints to Newsom.

I outlined the situation here in this series of tweets.

2/4 Here's an overhead of the same area. https://t.co/ovEg3Ni8tu pic.twitter.com/FK4GzwXeG6

— Victoria Taft (@VictoriaTaft) April 30, 2020

4/4 OC has flattened the curve and is on the downside of COVID 19 cases. It's reopening. Cases have dropped precipitously.
California cases also dropped. But @GavinNewsom closes OC beaches. Why? It's not based on science, but on fake news – and political spite? pic.twitter.com/oHOACvLoZK

— Victoria Taft (@VictoriaTaft) April 30, 2020

The Newport Beach City Council wasn’t persuaded by the one photo and decided to keep the beaches open. Obviously Newsom didn’t speak to Orange County lifeguards. He didn’t rely on local officials on the ground. He didn’t consult science. He believed the fake news.

So why did he close Orange County beaches?

Put your thoughts in the comments section.

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