Am I right that this is the first case of a politician encouraging people to follow the rules *while* breaking them? We’ve had near-misses on that. The Twitter account for the mayor of Denver warned his constituents to avoid travel half an hour before he boarded a flight to Houston.
But no one’s actually had the stones to transmit a “stay home” request during his own out-of-town trip. Like, Gavin Newsom didn’t pause during his dinner at the French Laundry to post a Facebook message encouraging people not to dine out.
Congrats to Steve Adler on a truly next-level demonstration of COVID hypocrisy. In a month marked by dispiriting failures of leadership, he’s somehow distinguished himself in his contempt for what his constituents are coping with.
EXCLUSIVE: Austin Mayor Steve Adler told the public to "stay home if you can…this is not the time to relax" in a Nov. 9 Facebook video. He did not disclose that he was at a timeshare in Cabo San Lucas after flying on a private jet with eight family members and guests. pic.twitter.com/w1uZahGfpM
— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) December 2, 2020
Adler did not violate his own order or those by Gov. Greg Abbott. However, city hall insiders have begun quietly discussing Adler's personal activities. Adler has been a constant voice during the COVID-19 pandemic, urging residents to take precautions. Here is his statement: pic.twitter.com/atrNs6ELB8
— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) December 2, 2020
All of these turds have the same excuse: Technically I wasn’t breaking any rules. And that excuse collapses every time it’s confronted with the counterargument, which is that all of their gatherings were completely unnecessary whether or not they were in strict violation of local regulations. There are really only two rules of good pandemic practice. First, avoid physical proximity to others unless it’s absolutely necessary. Second, if it’s necessary, wear a mask and do it outside if possible. Everything else is noise. Newsom’s dinner, London Breed’s dinner, the Denver mayor’s Thanksgiving trip to Houston, the San Jose mayor’s Thanksgiving trip to his parents’ home, now Adler’s vacation to Cabo San Lucas — every last one of these events had no higher purpose than socializing. It’s human to miss face-to-face contact with others, especially family, but breaking those two rules while in a position of authority amounts to sh*t leadership.
If they don’t think staying home is important enough to do it themselves, why are they setting social-distancing rules in the first place? I think it’s just virtue-signaling to them, something you do to prove you’re a conscientious Democrat.
More from the Austin-American Statesman:
As he pressed the public to help stop the spread of the virus in recent weeks, Adler had not previously disclosed details of his private actions. He gave no indication in his Facebook video that he was outside the city as he discussed Austin’s rising number of cases and reviewed the number of hospital patients.
In an interview this week with the American-Statesman, the mayor said he and his family put hours of consideration into how to hold an intimate event and vacation as safely as possible. He said he consulted with interim health director Dr. Mark Escott prior to the wedding at the Hotel St. Cecilia on South Congress Avenue and established rules to ensure guests’ safety. The 20 attendees had to undergo a rapid COVID-19 test and maintain social distancing, he said…
At the time, Austin was under Stage 3 recommendations, meaning that people should avoid gatherings of more than 10 people and only higher risk people were urged to avoid non-essential travel…
“There was no recommendation for people not to travel during that period of time,” he said. “Someone could look at me and say, ‘He traveled.’ But what they could not say is that I traveled at a time when I was telling other people not to travel.”
What? He encouraged people to stay home in the video he made while in Cabo. And while it’s a bummer that his daughter had to scale back the big wedding she had planned, how many Americans canceled their weddings altogether this year as a matter of basic prudence and consideration for their guests? Why did the Adler family end up with twice as many people at their wedding as his own administration recommended for gatherings at the time?
Coincidentally, Austin had more daily cases yesterday than it’s had since late July. I’ll leave you with this clip from CNN, proving that it’s not just righties who are irritated with Democratic officials’ hypocrisy. You know people like Adler and Newsom have screwed up when even an anti-Trump network is calling out their COVID practices.
WATCH: CNN's Brianna Keilar with an absolutely brutal 5 minute take down of Democrat coronavirus hypocrisy starring SF Mayor London Breed, CA Gov Gavin Newsom, LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, and NY Gov Andrew Cuomo. pic.twitter.com/Ew7y4RK9mp
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) December 2, 2020
