LA Mayor Garcetti: People Were ‘Sold a Bill of Goods,’ They Were Told Covid Pandemic Was Under Control

RUSH EXCERPT:

GARCETTI: “Well, Jake, I think a lot of things went wrong. But here where we’ve had fewer deaths than many of the big cities and our rate of increase hasn’t accelerated as much as others, we’re kind of in the middle of the pack. We’ve seen no national leadership. We’ve had to stand up testing centers on our own. We’ve had to do so much that is outside of our lane because of the lack of national leadership. But also I think that there are people who are just as exhausted. They were sold a bill of goods. They said this was under control. They said this would be over soon. And I think when leaders say that, people react. And they do the wrong things. They stop distancing themselves. They stop washing their hands. They stop wearing masks. We were the first big city to mandate masks in America. It took another month and a half to see that at the national level. More than two months for our president to don a mask. We were left on our own when we should’ve had help. We know this will be a marathon. Stop telling people this will be over soon. Let people know that this is a marathon, that we have to kind of push through every single mile. If we don’t come together as a nation with national leadership, we will see more people die.”