On Wednesday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson took Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) to task for violating his own orders to fight the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. On November 6, Newsom attended an indoor dinner party at The French Laundry with lobbyists and California Medical Association executives where there was no mask in sight.
Newsom offered an apology: “I made a bad mistake. Instead of sitting down, I should have stood up and walked back, got in my car, and drove back to my house. Instead, I chose to sit there with my wife and a number of other couples that were outside the household.”
Carlson wasn’t having it.
“Okay, Gavin. With no idea there would be a dozen people at your own party. You’re the governor, but you never saw the guest list. You were totally shocked,” the Fox News host said, mockingly. “That’s ridiculous. It’s too stupid to be an explanation and we are stupider for pretending to believe it.”
“Why not just tell the truth, which is, ‘I don’t really totally believe everything I say, at least not enough to let it interfere with dinner.’ That’s the truth. You know it, he knows it. But he’s forcing us to play along with an absurd lie,” Carlson argued.
“On the other hand, at least Gavin Newsom didn’t follow the lead of [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and blame the restaurant. He didn’t accuse the maitre d’ of setting him up as part of a conspiracy among the famously right-wing restaurant community in Napa.” Carlson quipped. Indeed, after Pelosi got caught going to a hair salon in locked-down California, she blamed the salon and demanded an apology.
“And to his credit, Gavin Newsom didn’t follow the example of Dianne Feinstein. She has refused to answer any questions as she parades around the halls of the United States Senate and private airport terminals maskless and exposed. Breathing on people, infecting them,” Carlson added.
He went on to mention the paddleboarder who got arrested for violating lockdown regulations. “They literally put him in handcuffs for paddleboarding alone.”
“So the paddleboarder gets arrested, Gavin Newsom gets to dine in peace,” the Fox News host said.
“What’s the lesson here? You know the lesson. If you want to live like a human being, you gotta get elected to something, and then you can break your own rules. Otherwise, don’t even think about it,” Carlson concluded.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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