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Gavin Newsom’s pandemic response has unduly focused on rewarding special interests, attracting press coverage, consolidating power, and pushing a “progressive” agenda.

The result is quite possibly the single worst COVID record of any Governor in the country on both public health and the economy. And now the media is taking notice.

The Associated Press has published a scathing report headlined “Newsom in the Hot Seat Over Pandemic Response.” The article begins:

“California Gov. Gavin Newsom has had a summer of muddled messaging and bad news in the coronavirus fight, a trend crystallized this week by his delayed response to a data error that caused a backlog of nearly 300,000 virus test results.”

The Sacramento Bee also has a front page story today headlined: “‘Patience is wearing thin.’ Year of misfortunes tests Gavin Newsom’s political standing.”

The AP report describes Newsom’s “tense” press conference last Monday after a week hiding from public view, noting that “his tone couldn’t have been more different than it was in March” when he held “commanding news conferences almost daily.”

The article goes on to discuss the disastrous “glitch” that bungled California’s COVID case data:

“The data backlog, which began at the end of July and continued because of a series of errors, halted decision-making about what parts of the economy could open. Newsom has repeatedly stressed that those decisions will be made based on data.”

“The snafu also poses a political problem for Newsom. His decisions in the crisis will help forge his legacy — good or bad — and so far, they are getting mixed reviews.”

One political consultant who used to be favorable towards Newsom called the reopening “inconsistent and confusing.” Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, is quoted saying there was “one mistake after another” and we were “woefully unprepared.”

He adds: “You would think we could have the best IT for the pandemic. There’s just no excuse. And we’ve had months,” he said.

The report also notes that Newsom ducked accountability over his Public Health Director’s resignation, saying “decisions were made.”

The article closes by describing me as “a frequent Newsom critic” and notes I have called for an oversight hearing into his failures:

“’For months Californians have put their lives on hold based on data. Now we’ve learned the data is wrong,’ Kiley said in a statement.”

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