In a 28-minute speech delivered at an empty Dodger Stadium — its 56,000 seats roughly equaling the 54,395 Californians who have died from the coronavirus — Newsom looked back on a year of policies designed to tackle the pandemic, and vowed a triumphant emergence.
“Since this pandemic started, uncertainty has been the only thing we could be certain of,” Newsom said. “But now we’re providing a little bit more certainty. Certainty that we’re safely vaccinating Californians as quickly as possible. Certainty that we’re safely reopening our economy and certainty that we’re safely getting our kids back into the classroom. All of which adds up to a much better future for our state. Because California — we’re not going to come crawling back, we will roar back.”
Although he did not specifically mention the effort to recall him from office, he delivered a pointed rebuke to his critics.
“The state of our state, it remains determined,” Newsom said. “I remain determined. And I just want you to know, we’re not going to change course just because of a few nay-sayers and dooms-dayers. So to the California critics out there who are promoting partisan, political power grabs… rejecting everything that makes California truly great, we say this: We will not be distracted from getting shots in arms and getting our economy booming again. This is a fight for California’s future.”
Newsom touted the state as a national leader in combating the coronavirus, from being the first state to issue a stay-at-home order to now leading the country in vaccine administration, doling out 3 million more doses than any other state.
“Think about this, California now ranks sixth in the world for vaccination distribution. Ahead of countries. Not states. Ahead of countries like Russia, Germany, Israel and France. I know our progress hasn’t always felt fast enough. And look, we’ve made mistakes. I have made mistakes. But we own them. We learn from them and we never stop trying. After all, that’s the California spirit.”
Newsom repeatedly emphasized the state’s insistence on following science, not political pressure, in making decisions about virus control.
“It was a year ago, a year ago that we made that incredible difficult decision to issue that stay-at-home order to slow the spread. You know, we agonized about it. We agonized about the sacrifices that it would require. But we made sure that science, not politics, drove our decisions. And as experts like Dr. (Anthony) Fauci have said, it was the right thing to do. People are alive today because of the public health decisions we made. Lives saved because of your sacrifice.”
Newsom said the state is working aggressively to reopen the economy, referencing a new shift that accounts for vaccine distribution in hard-hit communities as a metric for speeding the restart of more businesses. But he also said it’s still too early to “let down our guard,” particularly with the emergence of rapidly spreading coronavirus variants.
Newsom touted state stimulus packages, eviction bans and landlord support, $2.6 billion in small business grants, financial support for farmworkers and funding for “food banks and diapers.” He also promoted the recently enacted $6.6 billion legislative package providing incentives for schools to restart in-person instruction for students up to second-grade.
“Every day, every single day, more and more schools are announcing reopening dates, in fact, almost 7,000 schools are open or plan to reopen by mid-April for in-person instruction — 7,000,” Newsom said. “But California has about 11,000 schools in over 1,000 school districts spread across 58 counties, all locally controlled. So we’re not going to be satisfied until everybody is safely back in the classroom.”
Newsom also took time to address the continuing problem of homelessness across the state, touting programs such as Project Roomkey and Project Homekey that he said have created thousands of shelters and permanent homes, and saying the state is “literally rewriting the book on how to tackle homelessness.”
“While we acted swiftly during this pandemic, we are mindful — none of us are naïve — we are mindful that these tent cities on our sidewalks, these encampments along our freeways, they simply remain unacceptable,” Newsom said. “So our challenge moving forward is crystal clear, to continue our immediate progress while focusing on our longer-term goals.”
The speech came as Newsom deals with the growing possibility of facing a recall election. Organizers of the recall effort said Monday they had collected 1.95 million signatures on recall petitions. Forcing a recall election requires organizers to submit just under 1.5 million valid signatures. Recall organizers typically try to far exceed the signature requirement, due to the likelihood of some signatures being found to be invalid.
State Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, issued a statement saying that under Newsom, California “is in a state of disrepair.”
“He has no plan on how to get our kids back in school full time,” Wilk said. “He has no plan on how to improve EDD and he has no plan on how to get people vaccinated. He talked about number of vaccinations but the reality is we are 49th out of 50 states in vaccinations rates. We are doing something wrong but he has no plan to fix it.”
Robert says
Many cities are writing Newsom asking for exceptions from his stay at home orders. To hell with exceptions just open up the damn state. Many schools have students coming back so as Hillary says “what difference does it make”?
Newscum's Gotta Go says
Californians will not be allowed to return to normal – even after the pandemic is over – because normal was “never good enough,” Newsom said. Normal, he said, “accepts inequity” – and inequity is to blame for Latinos dying of COVID at a higher rate than any other racial or ethnic group – and why essential workers’ wages aren’t enough for them to afford the essentials, and why mothers, mothers have been leaving the workforce in staggering numbers.”
Sounds just like Auntie Nancy
It's "Moops" says
You are welcome to move to Texas. Bring a generator. Those Republicans don’t know how to run a state long term and it shows but not at night. No lights.
Now you gotta go.
tsparky says
Right, because we never have rolling blackouts in California. Well, there was last summer when 2M people were without power during August. And the year before, and …
Then there was 2000-2001.
Rolling blackouts says
As I recall, California had rolling blackouts in August, 2020 impacting 2 million. Newsom’s investigation claimed they resulted from:
1) Inadequate preparation for a “climate change-induced extreme heat storm.”
2) Insufficient energy in the early evening hours due to the state’s increased reliance on clean energy.
3) Complex market mechanisms, including one that allowed power plant operators to sell energy to other states even as a shortfall loomed.
Nobody is ready for extreme, rare events.
Matt says
Crazy math these days. Apparently rolling black outs=3 weeks with no power in some places with freezing temps in the first half of it. Oh and minutes away from what they called catastrophic failure, I dont even know what that means if that wasnt one.
White Flight says
Purchasing a generator is a small price to pay to get away from Dumbocrat run Commiefornia
Matt says
U think people were able to get gas easily in that situation with everything going on? Pretty narrow view u have. Better plan ahead better than that sir. It isnt that simple.
Beecee says
The only narrow view here is you thinking someone with a generator doesn’t have fuel on hand.
Most will, they will also have ammo for their guns, and water with their food supply.
And you won’t be invited over.
Matt says
Ever go camping??? Lol. U have any idea at all how much gas it takes to run a generator for 3 weeks straight? Lol. Dont even jump in, u have no idea what u are talking about. Even camping out would be rough for u so please stay in ur lane and butt out on this one.
Beecee says
I can run a generator for weeks off the 36 gallons of gas in my pickup truck nerd
Matt says
Riiiiiiiiight. I believe u googled that. Lol. Even though it is Texas, which coincidentally, is where I’m from, believe it or not, not everybody there has a truck much less that holds 36 gallons. And even if u do, if u are getting a truck that size, I would go diesel. But again I dont believe u would have it. And that truck would just happen to be full of gas at the time. Lol. Again narrow view of what u see.
Declining State says
“The speech came as Newsom deals with the growing possibility of facing a recall election.”
Newssolini needs to learn how to code, make solar panels, or fulfill orders.
Cancelled White Male says
Declining State wrote: “Newssolini needs to learn how to code, make solar panels, or fulfill orders”.
LOLOL. Good one.