San Francisco’s mayor clapped back at CNN anchor Jake Tapper who threw a hissy fit when he viewed video clips of Frisco residents jogging and enjoying the beautiful sunshine while the city is under a “shelter in place” order.
During a broadcast on Tuesday, Tapper and CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, were visibly upset by images of residents walking outside and jogging. Tapper said the images were “kind of enraging.”
Gupta and Tapper criticized Mayor London Breed for not cracking down on residents enjoying their lives while maintaining a respectable distance from each other.
“They’re holding hands and walking down the street… “We saw people going for jogs, people going about their life as if it’s normal… This is actually kind of enraging,” Tapper said.
“Jake, I’m with you on this,” said Dr. Gupta, before adding that he was “surprised” to see “the lack of seriousness” to the lockdown order.
Mayor Breed appeared on CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer’s “Situation Room” on Wednesday to respond to the criticism. She clarified that people are allowed to go jogging and take a leisurely stroll.
She also pointed out that most people seen holding hands were couples who live together.
Mayor Breed said it would be unrealistic to expect people to stay cooped up inside their homes like hermits.
“People in San Francisco are definitely permitted to go out, to run, to exercise, to ride bikes, this is not about a vacation,” she said.
“If people are in the same household, they do not necessarily need to keep the same distance from members of their household; it would be impossible for them to do that. I think ultimately, it’s not a fair assessment to say people are just out and about and not necessarily following the social distancing protocols we put into place, because they are.”
Twitter users dragged Tapper on Twitter.com.
California has 870 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with only 17 deaths. One of those deaths was not a resident of the state, officials said.
