Governor Newsom Violates State Mask Mandate at NFL Playoff Game

California governor Gavin Newsom was photographed without a mask on Sunday at the Rams–49ers playoff match at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, along with Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti and San Francisco mayor London Breed, despite a state-wide indoor mask mandate.

SoFi Stadium also requires guests to wear masks except while eating and drinking. California currently has a mask mandate for all indoor public spaces until at least February 15.

The three politicians posed for photographs with former Los Angeles Lakers player Magic Johnson.

Newsom faced criticism in November 2020 after he was photographed dining at an upscale Napa Valley restaurant in violation of the state’s Covid mitigation guidelines.

“I should have stood up and…drove back to my house,” Newsom said at the time. “The spirit of what I’m preaching all the time was contradicted.”

The San Francisco mayor also violated her own city-wide indoor mask mandate in September, during a visit to a nightclub. The mandate stated that all residents must wear masks in indoor spaces unless they were eating or drinking.

Breed subsequently defended her actions and decried what she labeled the “fun police.”

“We don’t need the fun police to come in and micromanage and tell us what we should or shouldn’t be doing,” Breed told a local CBS affiliate. “My drink was sitting at the table…I got up and started dancing because i was feeling the spirit and I wasn’t thinking about a mask.”

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