Austin, Texas, Mayor Steve Adler (D) is apologizing for traveling to Mexico after urging residents to stay home to slow the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.
In a Facebook video posted Wednesday, Adler said following his daughter’s private wedding in Austin during the first week of November, a “small, mostly family group traveled to Mexico”:
“I want you to know that I regret that travel. I wouldn’t travel now. I didn’t over Thanksgiving, and I won’t over Christmas, and no one should,” the mayor continued:
Everyone should be avoiding nonessential travel now because we’re in the orange area. Now, I fear that the travel that I did, which took place during a safer period, followed the color-coded rules, could lead to some taking riskier behavior now. I recognize that my travel set a bad example. I recognize that the fact that I took that trip and at the same time was continuing to urge people to be cautious is confusing. I know that others have chosen not to travel under the same circumstances, and I know that in my position I need to send a clearer message. I’m sorry I took that trip. It was a lapse in judgment, and I want you to know that I apologize.
During a Facebook video on November 9, Adler told residents, “We need to stay home if you can. … We need to keep the numbers down,” he said, adding, “Now is not the time to relax.”
The mayor later admitted the video was recorded while he was in Mexico after traveling from Texas on a private plane, according to Breitbart News.
In a tweet on November 18, Adler wrote, “This virus is as contagious as it’s ever been. In what we do, we get to decide how many die”:
Thursday on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, host Joy Reid expressed her frustration regarding Adler’s actions and those of other Democrat leaders, saying, “Even the good politicians are messing up. And I don’t know what to do at this point if even the good guys are messing up.”