California Sheriff Rebels Against Governor Newsom’s New Restrictions – Won’t Be ‘Bullied Or Blackmailed’

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has said he won’t be “bullied or blackmailed” by California Governor Gavin Newsom into enforcing new COVID-19 rules.

Sheriff: Newsom Is A Hypocrite

In a video statement posted to YouTube, Sheriff Bianco criticised the “dictatorial attitude” that Governor Newsom had to California residents. Bianco noted that the Governor had threatened to pull funding from counties who would not enforce his new coronavirus orders.

“Ironically, it wasn’t long ago our same Governor loudly and publicly argued how wrong it was for the President of the United States to withhold federal funding from states not complying with federal laws,” Bianco said, noting his hypocrisy.

The fact that Newsom is “dining in luxury, travelling, keeping his business open, and sending his kids to in-person private schools is very telling about his attitude toward California residents, [and] his feelings about the virus,” Bianco continued.

Newsom was caught out last month attending a maskless dinner, according to reporter Adam Housley.

Newsom downplayed his flagrant violation of lockdown rules by describing it as a simple mistake. 

“We’re all human. We all fall short sometimes,” he argued.

RELATED: LA County Supervisor Votes To Ban Outdoor Dining – Dines Outdoors Hours Later

California’s Stay-At-Home Orders “Flat Out Ridiculous”

Bianco said that the closures because of Newsom’s new stay-at-home orders are “flat out ridiculous,” and slammed the metrics used as unbelievably faulty and not being representative of true numbers. He also said that they are disastrous for Riverside County.”

“When the medical field is so split about this virus, it might be time to employ a little common sense,” he continued.

Not stopping there, Bianco argued that any withholding of funding from Riverside County would be “keeping money and support from our hospitals, who are struggling with normal seasonal increases in patients, coupled with COVID-19 patients,” and therefore would be “totally irresponsible.”

Bianco claimed that Newsom is shifting attention away from himself and his hypocritical behavior onto California Sheriffs:

He is expecting us to arrest anyone violating these orders, cite them and take their money, close their businesses, make them stay in their homes, and take away their civil liberties, or he will punish all of us. I believe that all jobs are essential to someone. Leaders do not threaten, attempt to intimidate, or cause fear; bullies do…

“The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will not be blackmailed, bullied, or used as muscle against Riverside County residents in the enforcement of the Governor’s orders,” Bianco concluded, even in the face of threats from the Governor.

Lockdown ‘Making Criminals Out Of Law-Abiding Citizens’

This is not the first time that Bianco has rebelled against Newsom. At the start of the covid pandemic, Sheriff Bianco appeared on Fox and Friends, saying that California and Newsom wants to “make criminals out of law-abiding citizens” whose only crime is “trying to support a family.”

“My job certainly is essential, but so is the job that is putting food on somebody’s table,” he said at the time.

“A single mom that has three jobs to support her kids – her job is more essential to her than mine is to me,” Bianco said, refusing to enforce stay-at-home orders.

Bianco has recommended that Riverside residents “act responsibly” during the pandemic, and “do what they can to protect themselves and their family from contracting the virus.”