Newsom's admission that infamous COVID move was 'insane' triggers viral fury: 'We all told you'

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing backlash after telling CNN's Jake Tapper that shutting down the state's beaches during the COVID-19 pandemic was "insane in hindsight." Speaking during a fly-fishing trip in Montana, in an interview released this month, Newsom said early pandemic decisions were shaped by treating the crisis as if it were about hand sanitizer shortages and price gouging rather than the virus itself. He also said California's largest public school systems stayed closed longer than they should have, calling both the beach closures and the extended school shutdowns among the decisions he now regrets. Asked what he might have done differently, he remarked that "everyone's a genius in hindsight.", according to Fox News.

The comments quickly spread online, drawing criticism from conservative figures who argued the problems with the closures were obvious at the time. Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt wrote on X that the policy "was insane then" and that Newsom had been told so at the time. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon recalled suing Newsom in state and federal court to force Orange County's beaches to reopen, saying he lifted the closure order to avoid a court hearing on the cases. Benny Johnson, host of "The Benny Show," listed other pandemic-era measures, including a man's arrest for paddleboarding alone, sand-filled skate parks, mask requirements for children, and vaccine card requirements for public activities, suggesting Newsom was only acknowledging the mistakes now because of presidential ambitions.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News →