Thanks in part to his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in his state, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is being discussed as a potential GOP frontrunner for the 2024 presidential race.
Gov. DeSantis decided not to lock down like most other states or enforce a state-wide mask mandate. This decision allowed businesses in Florida to flourish and schools to stay open all the while having better results than states such as California and New York who have had some of the strictest lockdowns which resulted in the tanking of their economies.
If those two other states weren’t doing poorly enough, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York now finds himself in the middle of a scandal involving a nursing home death cover-up where the numbers are much higher than reported. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California imposed some of the strictest lockdowns, including not allowing indoor or outdoor dining, but that didn’t stop him from having a nice dinner indoors with a large group and is now facing a recall in his state.
Politico reports:
“Ron DeSantis is having a moment with conservatives,” said Josh Holmes, a top adviser to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. “Part of this is liberals tried to cast this in the yin-and-yang comparison with Cuomo … It’s policy and it’s partly stylistic, the way he handles the news media and his blue-collar appeal.”
Early on in the pandemic, both Newsom and Cuomo won national praise for their handling of the pandemic while DeSantis was panned for his more economy-focused and laissez-faire approach — one closely aligned with Donald Trump’s response to the Covid-19 crisis. Now conservatives are relishing the contrast and holding up DeSantis as an example of effective governance.
But it’s the fight in DeSantis that has animated conservatives, said Holmes, pointing to a recent press conference DeSantis held to announce a proposal to crack down on Big Tech where, in accusing the news media of having double standards, he told a reporter at one point that “you can whiz on my leg but don’t tell me it’s raining.”
While Politico points out that DeSantis may not have nationwide popularity yet, he certainly seems headed that way and many people in other states are starting to take notice.
Andrew Cuomo is shattering NYC’s restaurant business...for no reason
The restaurant industry is perhaps the most essential part of New York City’s social and economic sectors – from small, family-owned restaurants to world-renowned establishments, the industry is the second-largest component of tourism spending.
But, at least 4,500 restaurants have been forced to permanently close their doors thanks to Governor Cuomo’s never-ending coronavirus restrictions.
As cases continue to rise, the Democrat ordered an end to all indoor dining starting on Monday, with NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio in full support of the ban.
“The hospitalizations have continued to increase in New York City,” Cuomo said. “We said that we would watch it if the stabilization, if the hospital rate didn’t stabilize we would close indoor dining. It is now. We’re gonna close indoor dining in the city on Monday.”
Cuomo’s decision has received enormous backlash because of its disregard for the facts.
Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, blasted the dining ban, calling it “insanity” in a Twitter rant Friday.
Politicians Are Stealing the Basic Right To Earn A Living pic.twitter.com/9Yx9Vf1iP1
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) December 11, 2020
“I can’t believe in this country, what I consider the most basic right of them all, the right to earn a living, the right to earn a livelihood, is now being stolen,” he continued. “It is being stolen by a few politicians who believe they are smarter than me and you.”
According to the state’s contact tracing program, restaurants and bars have contributed a mere 1.4 percent to the total number of cases, while personal gatherings have driven nearly 75 percent.
So, essentially, Cuomo is shutting down an industry, pulverizing small businesses and putting workers out of a job only to make a microscopic dent in case numbers.
And restaurant owners are infuriated.
“We’ve been following everything that they gave us – the guidelines, we changed our air filter systems, we do the protocols of taking temperatures, getting people to sign the [contact tracing] papers, everything from A to Z,” one restaurant owner told the New York Post. “It’s just not right you have small businesses that are day to day surviving, and day to day they’re trying to pay the bills and day to day trying to feed their staff who are trying to feed their kids.”
Closing down restaurants takes away one of the few options New York City residents have to socialize, and because humans need social interactions, household gatherings will likely skyrocket – and so will case numbers.
What Coronavirus? Gavin Newsom Dines Out With Large Group While Telling You to Lockdown
Yet another Democrat leader violating their own Coronavirus restrictions.
Gov. Gavin Newsom attended a birthday party for adviser Jason Kinney at an upscale restaurant where nearly a dozen people all sat closely together without face masks.
EXCLUSIVE: We've obtained photos of Governor Gavin Newsom at the Napa dinner party he's in hot water over. The photos call into question just how outdoors the dinner was. A witness who took photos tells us his group was so loud, the sliding doors had to be closed. 10pm on @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/gtOVEwa864
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) November 18, 2020
Newsom apologized and said he wanted to “own” his mistake out of worry that residents would not take his strict lockdowns seriously.
To make matters worse, according to Politico some of California’s top brass doctors attended the dinner. Politico writes ” California Medical Association officials were among the guests seated next to Gov. Gavin Newsom at a top California political operative’s opulent birthday dinner at the French Laundry restaurant this month. CEO Dustin Corcoran and top CMA lobbyist Janus Norman both joined the dinner at the French Laundry, an elite Napa fine dining restaurant, to celebrate the 50th birthday of lobbyist and longtime Newsom adviser Jason Kinney, a representative of the powerful interest group confirmed Wednesday morning.”
Here are some other democrat leaders violating their lockdowns, Fox News reports:
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was less contrite after traveling to Delaware to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on his election victory, despite the state being on Bowser’s own travel advisory list. Bowser discussed the trip while holding a press conference on Monday, even though her order requires a 14-day quarantine following travel, NBC Washington reported.
Bowser insisted that the restriction does not apply to her situation because it was essential travel.
“I do a lot of things to advance the interests of the District of Columbia, and some of them are formal, and some of them are informal, but all of them are necessary,” Bowser said.
Another Democratic mayor, Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot, also faced backlash for urging residents to take new precautions soon after she had shared video of herself in a crowd and speaking without a mask following the presidential election. Just days later, she announced a “stay-at-home advisory” that says residents should only leave home for work, school, or other “essential needs.”
This is a great day for our city and our country. We are taking our democracy back. #BidenHarris2020 pic.twitter.com/OAZQPd1r4y
— Lori Lightfoot (@LoriLightfoot) November 8, 2020
Other hypocritical Democrats include Nancy Pelosi getting her hair done maskless.
Democratic Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney got called out after he imposed a restriction against indoor dining in his city but was then spotted at a Maryland restaurant.
Rules for thee and not for me must be the democrat motto. Why should anyone abide by their extremely restrictive and destructive lockdowns when they don’t adhere to them themselves?
