French Laundry

Friday

May 19, 2023

Gavin Newsom could be the Democrats’ best 2024 hope

California governor Gavin Newsom wants to be president. If he claims otherwise — and he has — that’s Gavin. Integrity is not his strong suit. According to the RealClearPolitics aggregate of polls, the Democratic Party’s leading 2024 candidates are in preferential order: Biden, Harris, Buttigieg, Sanders, Clinton, Warren, Newsom, Ocasio-Cortez and Klobuchar. There’s also talk of a Michelle Obama draft. Newsom’s poll numbers remain low. His state is a mess and his budget surpluses have turned into a $30 billion deficit. He is a whitey-white Anglo heterosexual in an identity-mad party. But the Democratic field is weak, and the Biden candidacy tentative. The little girl on the school bus, Kamala Harris, is the most widely disdained vice president in decades.

Wednesday

November 18, 2020

Katya Sedgwick

Gavin Newsom’s dirty French Laundry

Gavin Newsom is not a very good liar. The California governor, who recently issued a coronavirus ruling prohibiting Christmas and Thanksgiving gatherings of more than 10, or members of more than three different households, has broken his own rules. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Newsom attended a birthday party for a lobbyist at the ultra-lux Wine Country restaurant French Laundry. Six couples were present at the maskless, non-socially distant soirée, including functionaries from the California Medical Association, which advises the governor on the pandemic measures.After putting the state on yet another lockdown, a shifty-looking Newsom recorded a video explaining what happened at that $400-a-plate affair.