Newsom Expresses "Regret" Over COVID Policies: Closing Beaches Was "Insane, In Hindsight"
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2026/09/23/newsom_expresses_regret_over_covid_policies_closing_beaches_was_insane_in_hindsight.html

California Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted "regret" over some of the "crazy" things done in response to COVID-19 during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper last week, but he added that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis closed beaches before he did.

Newsom agreed when CNN's Jake Tapper suggested: "There needs to be like a 9/11 Commission on COVID -- what we did right, what we did wrong."

"Everyone's a genius in hindsight. Coulda-woulda," Newsom said. "I was running around doing price-gauging legislation against Purell -- everyone was thinking it was a Purell-based crisis."

Getting defensive, he added: "DeSantis was closing down his beaches before we closed ours. The idea that we closed beaches was insane, in hindsight."

"L.A. refused, and I regret that, obviously."

"You're about to reopen them, and then there's a new wave," he remembered. "A new variant comes out."

He aalso said his decision to eat out at the French Laundry at the height of pushing stay-at-home orders was "just a bone-headed decision."

"I was just dialing it in. We were exhausted, friend's birthday. It was a restaurant that was open the night before, open the night after. But it was against the spirit of the rules I was promoting, and I went. I had a mask on when I went in, when I went out -- but not while I was eating."

"I was up there promoting mask on in between bites," he laughed. "Which in itself is curious."

"It was a completely legit condemnation," Newsom said. "I got a recall, and I almost lost -- talk about humility."

"My politics changed after that."