Eric Garcetti’s ‘I Didn’t Inhale’ Moment

“Los Angeles Mayor — and Biden Administration ambassadorial nominee — Eric Garcetti today defended his actions after maskless photos surfaced of him and Lakers great Magic Johnson, along with San Francisco Mayor London Breed, at SoFi Stadium last weekend for the NFC Championship game,” Deadline reports. Magic Johnson tweeted out the photos of him posing for separate pictures with Garcetti, Breed, and California governor Gavin Newsom — all of whom were maskless: 

Newsom, no stranger to violating his own Covid rules, told reporters that he only took the mask off for the picture. He was characteristically eloquent: “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.” But alas, that too is dubious. Deadline continues:

Footage shown during the game, however, seemed to tell a different story. It begins with a shot of a maskless Jessica Alba before cutting to a smiling Magic Johnson greeting a man who appears from the back to be the governor — similar height, similar trucker hat, similar navy blue fleece. The man walks up and moves to slap hands. Neither Johnson nor the man who approaches him are wearing masks. Other images of Newsom, sitting with and without a mask at the game, have surfaced since.

Garcetti had an even better excuse, saying that he “held his breath” for the photograph while his mask was off. As some noted, Garcetti isn’t the first prominent Democratic politician to tell a breathing-related whopper. Remember Bill Clinton’s “I didn’t inhale” moment?

For all their talk of the urgent necessity of following public-health orders, Covid-hawk elites seem remarkably unconcerned about masking and social distancing in their own personal lives. For all the excuses, Deadline points out that all three politicians were in violation of a local public-health order “requiring attendees to wear masks at all times during so-called outdoor ‘mega events,’ except when ‘actively eating or drinking.’” Of course, that highlights the hypocrisy of politicians who don’t abide by their own pandemic restrictions — Breed, it should be noted, has also come under fire for violating her own Covid rules in the past — but it is also an obvious example of just how fundamentally absurd the restrictions are in the first place. Why are we arguing about whether or not someone held their breath while they were maskless in the Year Of Our Lord 2022?