‘Look, we’ve made mistakes.’ As recall looms, Gavin Newsom defends his coronavirus record

With a potential recall election on the horizon, Gov. Gavin Newsom gave a full-throated defense of his coronavirus policies during his State of the State speech Tuesday, touting the fact that California has fewer deaths per capita than Texas, New York and the United States as a whole.

He credited his administration’s response to the pandemic, including issuing the nation’s first statewide stay-at-home order, ramping up testing and expanding hospital capacity.

He also heralded California’s vaccination rollout, which had a rocky start but accelerated quickly, with more than 10.6 million vaccines administered. That puts California ahead of many larger countries in terms of vaccinations, including Germany and France, he said.

The Democratic governor addressed the state from one of the California’s largest vaccination sites — Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles — a break from tradition for a speech usually given at the Capitol. He concluded in under half an hour, unusually succinct for a governor known for meandering addresses.

The speech, normally delivered to lawmakers in the Assembly chamber, had no in-person audience because of the coronavirus pandemic. The stadium’s 55,000 seats remained empty, an allusion to the more-than 54,000 Californians who have died of COVID-19.

“I know our progress hasn’t always felt fast enough,” Newsom said. “And look, we’ve made mistakes. I’ve made mistakes. But we own them, we learn from them, and we never stop trying.”

Newsom delivered his speech as his opponents are mobilizing to try to remove him from office. Organizers trying to recall him say they’ve collected enough signatures to trigger a special election to ask voters if they want to oust their governor, but state and local officials have not yet verified the signatures.

“We won’t change course just because of a few nay-sayers and dooms-dayers,” he said, in an apparent reference to the recall effort. “So to the California critics, who are promoting partisan power grabs and outdated prejudices, and rejecting everything that makes California great, we say this: We will not be distracted from getting shots in arms and our economy booming again.”

Newsom highlighted his administration’s focus on equity as the coronavirus swept through the state, and promised that his administration will continue to try to lift up the people hit hardest by COVID-19 even after the worst is over.

“When this pandemic ends — and it will end soon — we’re not going back to normal,” he plans to say. “Normal was never good enough.”

He peppered the speech with references to individual Californians he met while traveling the state and praised them for their resilience during the pandemic.

And he referenced the $600 payments he approved last month for low-income California families, which are funded by the state and will supplement federal relief payments. They are part of $7.6 billion in state stimulus he approved, including $2.6 billion in small business grants.

Newsom also promised that kids will soon be back in classrooms thanks to a reopening deal he recently brokered with lawmakers. The deal provides $2 billion in incentive funding to spur schools to return to in-person instruction, although it does not force classrooms to reopen.

“There’s nothing more foundational to an equitable society than getting our kids safely back into classrooms,” he said. “We have turned the conversation from whether to reopen, to when. And that ‘when’ is now upon us.”

Last year, Newsom devoted his entire State of the State address to combating homelessness.

The pandemic thwarted him from making good on his promise to make homelessness his top priority, but Newsom still launched two new programs — Project Roomkey and Project Homekey — that have housed many homeless people, even as many more people have lost their homes or are at risk of losing their homes because of the pandemic.

Project Roomkey, which temporarily housed people in empty hotel rooms during the pandemic, has sheltered nearly 35,000 people, Newsom said. Homekey, which helped local governments purchase hotels and motels to provide permanent shelter, has resulted in 6,000 new homeless housing units.

“While we acted swiftly during this pandemic, we are mindful that these tent cities on our sidewalks and the encampments along our freeways simply remain unacceptable,” Newsom said. “Now, bringing the same spirit of innovation behind Project Roomkey and Homekey, we’re committing nearly $2 billion this year to create more homeless housing, addressing mental health and substance abuse issues, and ending homelessness one person at a time.”

Democrats rushed to praise Newsom following the address. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins denounced the effort to recall him.

“The governor made an absolutely good case today about why a recall is absolutely an irresponsible thing to be considering right now,” the San Diego Democrat said. “This governor is working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and actually making sure that we have resources going to those critical needs.”

Republicans were less impressed.

“It was basically a defense of his administration over the last three years and to me he is governor fluff and puff because it was no substance,” said Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk of Santa Clarita. “It was all fluff and trying to puff up his record.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 6:26 PM with the headline "‘Look, we’ve made mistakes.’ As recall looms, Gavin Newsom defends his coronavirus record."