Written by Vincent Cain
Eric Garcetti, the L.A. Mayor and Biden Administration nominee to Ambassador to India, defended himself for taking a maskless photo with Lakers great Magic Johnson and San Francisco Mayor London Breed at SoFi Stadium last weekend for the NFC Championship game in Los Angeles.
Johnson tweeted out several photos from the event featuring himself and some others, including Garcetti, Breed, and California Governor Gavin Newsom. But, of course, none of them were wearing masks, despite a local public health officer order requiring masks at all times during such “mega-events,” excluding those who are “actively eating or drinking.” Garcetti answered a reporter’s question about the photos, said, “I’ll take personal responsibility, and if it makes you and everyone else happy — or even the photographs with people where literally I’m holding my breath for two seconds — I won’t even do that.” Garcetti also praised Los Angeles’s mask mandate saying that the area is still seeing a high rate of transmission of COVID-19.
Garcetti said that “He was wearing a mask at the game and removed it for a brief moment to take a few photos.” Newsom said that he only removed his mask for a few photos while drinking a water glass when asked about the photos. “You’re correct,” Newsom said when asked about going maskless at SoFi. “I was very judicious yesterday. Very judicious. You’ll see the photo that I did take, Magic was kind enough, generous enough, to ask me for a photograph and in my left hand’s the mask and I took the photo. The rest of the time I wore it as we all should, um — not when I had a glass of water — and I encourage everybody else to do so. And, uh, that’s it.” Also videoed without their masks were Jessica Alba and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Given his 2020 incident at the French Laundry, Newsom was asked if he should have reconsidered taking off his mask, Newsom responded, “Yes, of course. I was trying to be gracious. I made a mis — I was trying to be gracious. I took the mask off for a brief second but, no, I encourage people to continue to wear them.” Multiple photos of Newsom with and without a mask have surfaced online since.
Photo Cred: AP Photo/ Richard Vogel
