Numerous politicians have violated their own coronavirus restrictions during the pandemic. Politicians have gotten haircuts after telling citizens to stay home, visited elderly relatives after emphasizing the pandemic’s risk towards older populations, and eaten inside at restaurants even after banning indoor dining.
Here are the worst instances of politicians’ hypocrisy during the pandemic.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot defended herself for getting a haircut despite telling citizens to stay home except for essential activities. In a video posted March 30, Lightfoot urged citizens to “stay home” and “save lives” in compliance with the statewide stay-at-home order. A few days later, however, a photo surfaced of Lightfoot standing with a woman who gave her a haircut.
Mayor Lightfoot Criticized After Post Shows Her Getting Haircut During Stay-At-Home Order https://t.co/JkluWJXgdN pic.twitter.com/8jyjReRdZQ
— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) April 7, 2020
“I’m the public face of this city and you know, I’m a person who [takes] personal hygiene very seriously and I felt like I needed to have a haircut,” Lightfoot said in a statement after the photo surfaced. “So I got a haircut.” (RELATED: These Governors Told Citizens To Stay Home. Then They Broke Their Own COVID Rules)
Lightfoot was also criticized after she posted a video Nov. 7 that showed her celebrating Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election with a large crowd of people gathered closely together. The crowd gathered a few days before Chicago’s stay-at-home advisory went into effect, which said: “Residents should only leave home to attend work, school or to meet essential needs.” Lightfoot told people to “cancel traditional Thanksgiving plans” due to the pandemic just 5 days after the video was posted.
Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was caught going to a San Francisco hair salon for a blow-out in August even though indoor salons were closed due to the pandemic. Security footage obtained by Fox News showed Pelosi walking through the salon without wearing a face mask.
“I am a single mom, I have two small children, and I have no income,” Erica Kious, the owner of the salon, told Fox News. “The fact that they did this, and she came in, it’s like a slap in the face.”
“The speaker always wears a mask and complies with local COVID requirements,” Pelosi’s spokesperson, Drew Hammill, told Fox News.
Despite putting in place some of the most restrictive coronavirus measures in the country, California Governor Gavin Newsom was caught dining indoors with a large party Nov. 6. Photos obtained by Fox News LA showed the governor at the French Laundry, a high-end restaurant in California’s Napa Valley. Newsom claimed that the party was outdoors, but the photos show that the sliding glass doors were shut, calling into question the governor’s account.
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 later apologized for attending the dinner party. He said he was uncomfortable once he realized that the group was larger than he expected it to be and called his attendance was a “bad mistake.”
“We should have modeled better behavior and not joined the dinner,” Newsom said.
A Texas judge plead guilty after violating his own stay-at-home order and will pay a $1,000 fine, his lawyer said. Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell was caught on camera attending a birthday party for his grandson, reportedly wearing fire department protective gear, despite the stay-at-home order that he had enacted in April.
Williamson County was in the “red” phase of coronavirus restrictions, which is the most restrictive phase possible.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told citizens to “stay away” from loved ones over Thanksgiving – but said during an interview that he was going to see his 89-year-old mother and two daughters over the holiday. (RELATED: ‘You’re Such A D**k’: New Jersey Gov Confronted Eating Maskless Outside With His Family)
“The current plan is my mom is going to come up and two of my girls, [that’s] the current plan,” Cuomo said on the radio station WAMC-FM. “But the plans change, but that’s my plan. But I’m going to work — I have a lot of work to do between now and Thanksgiving.”
After facing a massive backlash, a spokesperson for Cuomo said that the governor’s plans had changed and that he was no longer going to see his family.
“Given the current circumstances with COVID, [Cuomo] will have to work through Thanksgiving and will not be seeing them,” Richard Azzopardi, a spokesperson for the governor, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.