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Sunday, May 10, 2026
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Newsom Admits Publicly His Own Pandemic Shutdown Rules were 'Insane' in Shocking New Interview

Gavin Newsom stood waist-deep in a Montana river this week, fly rod in hand, CNN's Jake Tapper beside him in matching waders, and said the words out loud: closing California's beaches during COVID was "insane, in hindsight."

He wasn't under oath. He wasn't cornered by a hostile interviewer. He picked the friendliest possible setting — a fishing trip with a CNN anchor — to admit what 40 million Californians lived through.

Newsom issued the nation's first statewide stay-at-home order on March 19, 2020. Not a recommendation. An order. Beaches closed. Churches closed. Small businesses shuttered with weeks-old cardboard signs taped to their doors. California launched one of the country's earliest and most aggressive pandemic responses, and Newsom was the face of every restriction. He told the public it was necessary. He told the public it was science. He told the public to stay home.

Then he went to the French Laundry.

The November 2020 dinner at the exclusive Napa Valley restaurant — maskless, indoors, with lobbyists — became the single most iconic image of pandemic hypocrisy in America. Newsom now calls it "just a boneheaded decision, a stupid decision" that was "against the spirit of the rules that I was promoting." Against the spirit. Not against the rules themselves — against their spirit. The man who shut down outdoor dining for millions describes his own violation as a spiritual lapse.

On schools, Newsom went further. "Obviously, the schools taking too long" to reopen, he told Tapper. "A lot of districts were open, but the big ones weren't. LA refused, and I regret that, obviously." LA refused. Los Angeles Unified — the second-largest school district in the country — kept kids out of classrooms while districts across the state brought them back. Newsom frames this as a local decision, spreading blame to district officials and teachers' unions. The state's own health rules, county-level conditions, and district-union negotiations all played a role. But the governor who wielded emergency powers over every other aspect of California life suddenly had no leverage over school reopenings.

The timing of this confession matters more than its content. Newsom is a prospective 2028 presidential contender. He has said he won't enter the Democratic primary if former Vice President Kamala Harris runs, which means he's positioning for the scenario where she doesn't. Every word of this interview is focus-grouped repentance — admissions calibrated to neutralize his biggest national liability before he has to defend it on a debate stage.

Also Tapper admits his reasoning for wanting to give Newsom a platform to explain himself

In 2020 and 2021, anyone who called beach closures insane was a conspiracy theorist. Anyone who said schools needed to reopen was accused of wanting children to die. Parents who protested were filmed by local news as selfish extremists. Newsom's own public health officials enforced the rules he now disowns, and the people who objected paid fines, lost businesses, and watched their kids fall behind academically.

Now the governor who ordered it all stands in a trout stream and calls it insane. Not at a press conference. Not before a legislative committee. Between casts, on a CNN segment designed to make a politician look human.

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