Newport Beach, Calif. Mayor Will O’Neill ripped Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom for the lack of “data” behind his decision to close all the state’s beaches.
Newsom made his decision Thursday via a memo to all California police chiefs after pictures of seemingly crowded beaches made the rounds on social media. However, during a Friday night appearance on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” O’Neill disputed both the science behind the decision as well as the contention that the beaches were actually as crowded as the photos made them seem.
He said the beaches were closed “not because of data, but because of politics.”
WATCH:
“How do I know that? Because here’s the data,” O’Neill told Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “Orange County has 3.2 million people who live here. It’s bigger than 22 states, bigger than states like Nevada, Mississippi, Iowa, and of all of those people, we’ve lost 50 people to this virus. That’s 0.001% of our population. In our local hospital, we have 475 beds, they have never treated more than 25 people at any given time, and yesterday they had nine people that they were treating, and only 1% of their ventilators were being used.”
The Newport Beach mayor pointed out the fact that, despite the fact that Los Angeles County’s beaches have been closed for over a month, “every single city that is along the coast of Los Angeles has a higher per capita COVID rate than every open community in Orange County.”
“This has nothing to do with data, and it has everything to do with politics,” he said. “I think what our governor did was, he looked at photographs that were showing a mile of beach condensed into about a meter. It looked like everyone was on top of each other. But he should’ve called me. I’m the mayor of Newport Beach, and he should’ve asked me what we’re seeing on the ground, and I would’ve told him.”
O’Neill explained that his county’s lifeguards, fire chief, and law enforcement all agreed that the “vast majority” of people “were social distancing,” and the few who weren’t “got to spend some time talking to law enforcement about making sure they understood what social distancing really means.”
“Our governor should have fought beside us,” he added. “He should’ve fought against this national narrative.” (RELATED: Tucker: WHO ‘Admitting’ Sweden’s ‘Model’ Is Working But US Policy Makers Won’t ‘Abandon A Sweeping Power Grab’)
When asked what he thinks will happen if Newsom’s order isn’t enforced, O’Neill contended that their “local sheriff has already said he already has no intention of enforcing this” before pleading for the California governor to “go on the side of liberty, not restrictions” and “reverse[s] this call.”