Coronavirus

Recall Election Heats Up: Gov. Newsom Trades Fire with Larry Elder

Elder blames Newsom for California’s homelessness crisis and the unaffordable housing market. According to him, Newsom is responsible for unreasonable COVID-19 restrictions and heavy-handed environmental regulations.

Published

3 years ago

August 23, 2021

Isabelle Price

California Governor Gavin Newsom (then Lieutenant Governor) riding in the Golden State Warriors Parade in Oakland, California 6/12/18

Larry Elder

Until recently, Gov. Newsom’s strategy for responding to the litany of attacks he has received from Larry Elder, the Republican frontrunner in the upcoming Sept. 14 recall election,, has been to not respond directly to them.

Newsom’s responses have focused on his accomplishments, indirectly alluding to Elder’s attacks, and especially warning voters that if Republicans succeed in the recall, Trumpism would be in charge of the state.

But a little over a week ago, as Newsom spoke before phone bankers at a restaurant in San Jose, he brought up a number of Elder’s positions that clash with the views of a majority of Californians.

Elder, a former lawyer and Los Angeles-based conservative talk radio host, is opposed to a minimum wage. He is skeptical about climate change. He supports school choice and offshore drilling. He is against school mask mandates and would eliminate vaccination validation and mandatory testing for those who are not vaccinated.

“He actually wrote an op-ed saying women are not as smart as men on issues of civic affairs, on issues of economics, on issues of politics,” Newson said.

Last week, Newsom’s campaign released an ad that features a picture of Elder with Trump.

Elder has pushed back on the association with Trump. “The idea that they’re trying to characterize my campaign as some sort of extension of you-know-who is unfair to me,” Elder told ABC’s Eyewitness News. “I am an insurgent candidacy – 1.7 million Californians signed the recall petition. A quarter of them were Independents and Democrats who voted for the man just two years earlier.”

Regarding Trump and the legitimacy of 2020 presidential election, Larry Elder flipflopped after he told the Sacramento Bee’s editorial board on Aug. 2 that he did not believe that Joe Biden stole the election.

Later, on his talk radio show “The Morning Answer,” after receiving backlash in conservative circles for disagreeing with Trump, Elder changed his tune. He claimed the Sacramento Bee sound bite had been edited.

“So, do I believe that there were all sorts of shenanigans in the election? Absolutely. But Joe Biden is sitting there in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and Donald Trump is in Florida. So, let’s just move on and try to figure out what we can do to win in 2024,” Elder said.

Recently Elder went toe-to-toe with progressive radio host Tavis Smiley, who broadcasts from KBLA Talk 1580 in Los Angeles. Smiley challenged Elder on his opposition to reparations for African Americans for the atrocities of slavery and the financial losses Blacks suffered due to Jim Crow laws and systemic racism.

“Systemic racism is not the problem,” Elder said. Instead, he blamed “the welfare state, which, he says, is the reason “the Black family unit” has been torn apart.

While Elder conceded that statistics on fatherless Black family units could have been largely due to the after-effects of chattel slavery and Jim Crow laws in the past, he does not think those factors are relevant to the discussion today.

Elder has long held the position that the racial wealth disparity is mostly concentrated at the top of America’s wealth pyramid and is therefore not indicative of systemic racial bias.

Lately, Elder’s campaign has been on the defensive. He is being investigated by the California Fair Practices Commission (FPPC) about his candidate disclosure form. His Republican opponents have joined Newsom and the media asking him to explain his past controversial statements, and he has responded to questions about what he said about Blacks, women, climate change, and other topics – not explicitly defending or denying them.

Among the most damaging are revelations made by his ex-fiancée Alexandra Datig, a former high class call girl who worked for Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss. Datig accused Elder of verbal and emotional abuse, including intimidation with a .45 revolver gun.

Elder has denied Datig’s allegations, calling them “a distraction.”

In the face of growing scrutiny, Elder insists that his opinions and convictions about issues facing Black people in America are all his own and not the regurgitated talking points of a controversial president (Trump).

“A lot of people bring up systemic racism since I’ve been campaigning, and I find it really bizarre. America has never been less racist than now,” Elder said in a conversation with Eyewitness News.

Isabelle Price

Posts by Isabelle Price

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Bay Area

Authorities Warn: There’s a COVID Surge in California

According to data estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the coronavirus in California’s wastewater has spiked for eight consecutive weeks. Hospitalizations and emergency room visits have also increased since the rise of the new subvariants. Over the last month, Los Angeles County experienced an average of 389 hospital patients per day that tested positive for the coronavirus. The FLiRT subvariants such as KP.3.1.1. Made up over 2% of coronavirus samples nationwide, an increase of more than 7% last month.

Published

2 months ago

August 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Photo provided by California Black Media.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

California is experiencing a COVID-19 surge this summer, experts warn, as numbers of infections increased for the third month this year.

State public health authorities attribute the summer COVID surge to more infectious subvariants that have emerged as the coronavirus evolves.

Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, stated that subvariants of COVID-19 called FLiRT increased in recent months, particularly one named KP.3.1.1 that has become the most common strain in the country.

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases expert at UC San Francisco, said that the subvariant KP.3.1.1 seems most adept at transmission.

“The subvariant is the one that people think will continue to take over, not only in the United States, but … around the world,” Chin-Hong said.

The majority of the people who tested positive for COVID-19 complained of a sore throat and a heavy cough. Risk factors that can increase the illness include age, underlying health issues, and vaccine dosage.

Health experts stated that the demand for the COVID-19 vaccine has increased in Northern California. However, people are having a hard time getting the vaccine due to the increasing number of cases.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

California Black Media

Gov. Newsom and Gov. DeSantis Go Head-to-Head in Nationally Televised Debate

Conservative Fox News personality Sean Hannity moderated the duel, during which the TV pundit, more than once, injected his opinion, and appeared to be providing subtle assists to DeSantis. As the debate progressed, it was clear that opinions about each topic discussed was representative of the philosophical and political chasm that divides liberal and conservative America, and a preview of campaign mudslinging that is bound to intensify as the 2024 presidential campaign ensues.

Published

10 months ago

December 10, 2023

Oakland Post

The debate between Gov. Gavin Newsom and Gov. Ron DeSantis was moderated by Fox News personality Sean Hannity. California Black Media image.

By California Black Media

In an intense, 95-minute-plus televised faceoff between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Nov. 30, the men traded jabs and putdowns, defended their respective gubernatorial records, disagreed sharply on how to solve the country’s most pressing problems, and expressed clashing views on the performance of the Biden-Harris administration.

Conservative Fox News personality Sean Hannity moderated the duel, during which the TV pundit, more than once, injected his opinion, and appeared to be providing subtle assists to DeSantis.

As the debate progressed, it was clear that opinions about each topic discussed was representative of the philosophical and political chasm that divides liberal and conservative America, and a preview of campaign mudslinging that is bound to intensify as the 2024 presidential campaign ensues.

“I’ll tell you why I’m here,” Newsom said. “I’m here to tell the truth about the Biden-Harris record and also compare and contrast Ron DeSantis’ record and the Republican Party’s record” with that of California.

DeSantis blasted Newsom’s management of the COVID-19 crisis and criticized Newsom for prevalent crime, homelessness and deteriorating social conditions in California cities.

“You have the freedom to defecate in public in California,” DeSantis said. “You have the freedom to pitch a tent on Sunset Boulevard. You have the freedom to create a homeless encampment under a freeway and even light it on fire. They’re not the freedoms our founding fathers envisioned.”

Newsom took a jab at DeSantis’ presidential candidacy, predicting that the Florida Governor would be endorsing GOP frontrunner Donald Trump soon.

“There’s one thing we have in common,” Newsom said. “Neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

BayCityNews

FDA Updates Approval of Pfizer Booster Vaccine for Children Under 5

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its approval Tuesday of the Pfizer-BioNTech booster vaccine, making it available to some children under age 5. Before this update, children under 5 were not eligible for COVID-19 booster shots. Instead, they received three doses of the regular vaccine.

Published

2 years ago

March 22, 2023

Oakland Post

As of December 2022, children age 4 and younger who have not been vaccinated receive the omicron variant-specific booster vaccine as the third dose in their primary vaccine series, following two doses of the original Pfizer vaccine.

By Eli Walsh
Bay City News

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its approval Tuesday of the Pfizer-BioNTech booster vaccine, making it available to some children under age 5.

Before this update, children under 5 were not eligible for COVID-19 booster shots. Instead, they received three doses of the regular vaccine.

However, children in that age range who completed their initial vaccination series before December 2022 only received three doses of the original Pfizer vaccine, and are less protected against more infectious variants of the virus as a result.

FDA officials updated the vaccine’s emergency use authorization Tuesday to allow those children who only received the original Pfizer COVID vaccine to receive one dose of the bivalent booster if it has been at least two months since they completed their initial series.

Other children under age 5 are not eligible for the booster, although everyone age 5 and up is eligible for a booster.

“Currently available data show that vaccination remains the best defense against severe disease, hospitalization and death caused by COVID-19 across all age groups, and we encourage all eligible individuals to make sure that their vaccinations are up to date with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine,” said Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

Clinical data has found that both the original Pfizer vaccine and the booster vaccine that targets the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are safe for everyone aged 6 months and up and effective at preventing the worst outcomes of COVID infection, including serious illness and death.

COVID vaccines are available at primary care providers, retail pharmacies and some facilities operated by local health departments.

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