When Gavin Newsom was facing a recall election as governor of California in September 2021, he fiercely defended his pandemic lockdowns and warned the state could fall off a “COVID cliff” if the recall passed and a Republican who opposed mask mandates in schools replaced him.

That was then.

On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Governor Hair Gel ran away from his lockdown policies by telling host Chuck Todd that at the time, “we didn’t know what we didn’t know.” He then added: “We would have done everything differently.” As for criticism of his COVID actions: “All of it is legitimate.” We admit to being gobsmacked.

Newsom pointed out that many Red States also moved into lockdowns as COVID hit, but most Republican governors ended business and school lockdowns far sooner than Newsom did. His stay-at-home orders remained in place far longer than almost anywhere else. When local governments rebelled and declined to enforce nonsensical rules, Newsom had state agencies threaten businesses with fines and license revocations.

At the same time, Newsom sent his children to a private school that offered in-person instruction when public schools were shuttered, and in the fall of 2021 attended an infamous dinner with a lobbyist at the French Laundry restaurant in Napa while he discouraged Californians from having Thanksgiving together.

Congrats to Newsom for at least admitting he was wrong on Covid. However, his policies destroyed the state’s economy and did great and lasting damage to the children of California.

Hard to believe with this record, that Democrats are flocking to him to run for president.