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Coronavirus

Austin Mayor Who Told Citizens To 'Stay Home' Was Vacationing in Mexico with Extended Family

Steve Adler attended his daughter's 20-person wedding and then traveled with out-of-state family and friends.

Robby Soave | 12.2.2020 4:20 PM

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Screen Shot 2020-12-02 at 3.50.06 PM | Screenshot via YouTube
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In early November, Steve Adler—the mayor of Austin, Texas—warned residents about rising COVID-19 infection rates and asked them to continue to practice social distancing.

"We need to stay home if you can," said Adler in a pre-recorded video address posted to Facebook. "Do everything you can to try to keep the numbers down. This is not the time to relax. We may have to close things down if we're not careful."

Adler might have said we need to stay home, but he clearly didn't mean it. In fact, Adler recorded that message from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where he was vacationing with members of his extended family, according to an infuriating report by local news channel KVUE.

That vacation took place immediately following the wedding of Adler's daughter, which included 20 guests—some of whom traveled to Austin from out of state.

The mayor maintains that his activities did not violate social distancing guidance from either the city or the state. City guidelines stipulate that social events should feature no more than 10 people. State guidelines place no specific limit on the number of guests for a wedding as long as the event is held outdoors. The Adler wedding took place outdoors, and guests were tested, according to the mayor.

"It's not perfect," said Adler. "Obviously there are infections that could happen. But what we did was stay compliant with the rules."

Even if the mayor's actions technically do not violate the law, they are completely at odds with the high level of caution he is urging Austin residents to exercise. Local, city, and state officials—not just in Austin, but everywhere—had advised citizens to modify their Halloween and Thanksgiving plans, if not abandon them entirely. The message from government health officials as of late has been clear and consistent: stay home, and don't socialize with people outside your household. Adler threw a wedding and then decamped to Mexico with eight members of his extended family.

The mayor of Austin is just one more person in government who can't practice what he preaches. The COVID-19 pandemic has supplied no shortage of other examples: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.), Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murray, and of course, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Lockdowns are just for us peasants, it seems.

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NEXT: Florida Masseuse Ordered to Pay $31,573 After 'Soliciting' Robert Kraft To 'Commit Prostitution'

Robby Soave is a senior editor at Reason.

CoronavirusGovernment employeesTexas
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  1. Enjoy Every Sandwich   5 years ago

    Another science-denier in government!

    1. Chipper Morning Wood--------------------------------------------------------------------------   5 years ago

      Christ, what an asshole.

      1. MatthewSlyfield   5 years ago

        No, if he was an asshole he would be useful.

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      2. TheZeitgeist   5 years ago

        Christ wasn't that bad.

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    3. f1524ab   5 years ago

      I’m not surprised at the elitist attitude of power seekers, I am surprised at human nature to so readily cede there freedom. It’s nothing new, people have been bowing before idols, gods, kings and entertainment types for as far back as recorded history is written. Must be a nature instinct that evolved in a large percentage of the population. Unfortunate for us that have and express what are supposed to be “self evident inalienable rights“.

    4. sailorcowboy   5 years ago

      Yea like all those worthless leftists like Pelosi - they never do what they preach and they never believe in the shiat they preach! It is ALL one power game for them!

  2. De Oppresso Liber   5 years ago

    Guys, I'm starting to think that politicians are hypocrites.

    1. Red Rocks White Privilege   5 years ago

      This would be more amusing if they weren't inflicting their bullshit policies on the rest of us, causing months of economic misery and anxiety, while they and their social media bobbleheads hector everyone else to heed or they're killing grandma.

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    2. The Tony Continuum   5 years ago

      And yet, these guys still get elected.

    3. MatthewSlyfield   5 years ago

      Starting to thing???

      Welcome to consciousness. Obviously you have been in a coma for the last 100 years or so.

  3. Sometimes Bad Is Bad   5 years ago

    Stop voting for democrats.

    1. OpenBordersLiberal-tarian   5 years ago

      Well then how else do you expect us to get open borders? The Libertarian Party clearly isn't viable.

  4. Minadin   5 years ago

    Don't forget Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker (D), LA County Supervisor Sheila Keuhl (D), Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock (D) . . .

  5. Longtobefree   5 years ago

    Strange that only Nancy gets the deadly (D) after her name - - - - - - - -

  6. Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)   5 years ago

    Hey, look, my mayor got mentioned in an article on reason. So proud of him sticking it to the man.

    Oh, crap! The man is me, isn't it?

    1. bignose   5 years ago

      Glad I moved out of the city. Slightly less glad knowing I won't be able to vote (in vain) for someone to replace this douche.

    2. Dillinger   5 years ago

      it's not all those people living in the streets @Trinity & 7th

  7. Chuck P. (The Artist formerly known as CTSP)   5 years ago

    We need to keep the numbers down. Now is not the time to relax.”

    This sounds like poor medical advice from the mayor. If you don't relax when you are getting bent over, the damage is only going to be worse.

    1. Sometimes a Great Notion   5 years ago

      Asphinctersayswhat

    2. Dillinger   5 years ago

      Mooooooon River!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twRX28wf-n0

      1. mpercy   5 years ago

        You using the whole fist doc?

  8. OpenBordersLiberal-tarian   5 years ago

    "In fact, Adler recorded that message from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico"

    Good. That means he was just reinforcing the Koch / Reason libertarian principle that movement of people across the US / Mexico border is always acceptable — even during a pandemic.

    #OpenBorders
    #ImmigrationAboveAll

    1. Dillinger   5 years ago

      Cabo is basically southside San Diego.

      1. Bubba Jones   5 years ago

        It's 1,000 miles away.

        Do you mean Tijuana? Cause politicians do not vacation in Tijuana.

        1. Dillinger   5 years ago

          we used to do Friday nights in Tijuana in the late 80s but back then you could get cheap food and beer and woven pullovers ... and not beheaded and hung from a bridge

          I was being no-borders-facetious ... if not for the imaginary line San Diego and Cabo would be of the same land.

        2. MatthewSlyfield   5 years ago

          The separation between San Diego and Cabo is San Andreas fault.

      2. WuzYoungOnceToo   5 years ago

        Cabo is basically southside San Diego.

        Except that both the food and the Home Depot are better in Cabo.

  9. Jerryskids   5 years ago

    Lockdowns are just for us peasants people too stupid to know what's for their own good, it seems.

  10. Bubba Jones   5 years ago

    This is hilarious and just shows the extent to which this is health security theater.

    A bunch of SF politicians go to Napa for dinner because Napa has a low rate of covid. Ok, but YOU TOOK SF PEOPLE WITH YOU.

    Fucking viruses, how do they work?

    1. Don't look at me!   5 years ago

      They certainly don’t know.

  11. Unicorn Abattoir   5 years ago

    We need to keep the numbers down. Now is not the time to relax.

    Now where's my fucking Mai Tai that I ordered a half hour ago?!?!?

  12. Hank Phillips   5 years ago

    Gosh... a looter hypocrite? Honest-to-Cthulthu one of the looter kleptocracy politicians reciting "one law for me" to the idiot proletarians whose ballots said "Eembade me, exploit me... spiel jur oil on my birchin beeches... Jours, in Christ, Mimosa!" Bwah hah hah!

    1. Mother's Lament   5 years ago

      Piss off, Sqrlsy.

      1. Nail   5 years ago

        Whoa if Hank was actually SQRLSY....

  13. Commenter_XY   5 years ago

    Another fucking Team D hypocrite. Have a recall election immediately and toss his hypocritical ass out of office. ONE Austin, my ass.

    You know, if we were talking 1 or 2 prominent Team D politicos, I would just write it off. But this is a recurrent pattern. And the list grows daily. That's bullshit. Any Team R or Team L politico who does this should be drawn and quartered (politically, not literally!).

    Damn it, if you're going to make the rules, then live with the rules like the rest of us. Or drop the stupid rules. How is that hard to understand? All that hypocrisy and entitlement does is breed contempt for the law by the governed.

  14. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   5 years ago

    "We need to stay home if you can,"

    To be fair, maybe he couldn't stay home.

  15. Diane Reynolds (Paul.)   5 years ago

    Cue apology where mayor says, "This is not who I am."

    1. Árboles de la Barranca   5 years ago

      "The people deserve better...."

      1. Árboles de la Barranca   5 years ago

        "A week later, I WAS back home and in compliance..."

      2. Árboles de la Barranca   5 years ago

        "We all tested negative...."

        1. Árboles de la Barranca   5 years ago

          "We decided to self-quarantine to atone for our transgression..."

  16. Fist of Etiquette   5 years ago

    He's also guilty of terrible video framing. Learn to stage, people. You've had nine months to figure this out.

  17. Truthteller1   5 years ago

    One day we will come for their heads.

  18. skunkman   5 years ago

    Wake up people. This is a symptom of something much, much worse than hypocrisy. This is authoritarian elitism and for now it lives openly in the democratic party. Not that some republicans aren't guilty, but the entire democratic party embraces this type of crap. It's why I left the left. This one rule for me another for you comes right out of the "we know what's best for you" mind set and guess what people? That crowd wants to set laws for you that you must follow that they don't nee to follow. Do you find it to be a coincidence that almost every "shut down" "wear a mask everywhere" politician is a democrat?

  19. Trainer   5 years ago

    "We need to stay home if you can"

    That right there is what they call a Freudian slip.

  20. TangoDelta   5 years ago

    I think you mean New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy not Murray. [/pedant]

    1. Paul 3   5 years ago

      I think you mean New Jersey Dictator Phil Murphy.

  21. Alan@.4   5 years ago

    Does Do As We Say, Not As We Do ring familiar?

    1. Don't look at me!   5 years ago

      It has morphed into: do as we say, fuck you.

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