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Megyn Kelly on Tuesday mocked California Governor Gavin Newsom for admitting that San Francisco had been cleaned up for world leaders and delegates at the APEC summit – describing his attitude as “offensive.”
Newsom said work has been done to improve safety in the crime-ridden city, where robberies have risen 13.7 percent year over year and businesses are fleeing the empty, deserted downtown.
In preparation for APEC – during which the heads of 21 countries will descend on San Francisco, plus 20,000 delegates – homeless camps have been cleared, streets repaved, sidewalks power-washed and bridges and crossings repainted.
“I know people are saying, ‘Oh, they’re just cleaning this place up because all these fancy leaders are coming to town,’” Newsom said late last week.
“That’s true, because it’s true – but it’s also true that we had conversations for months and months and months leading up to APEC.”
Megyn Kelly said Tuesday it was “insulting” that California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor London Breed admitted they only cleaned up San Francisco because of APEC.
Newsom and his wife Jennifer will welcome Joe Biden to San Francisco on Wednesday for the APEC summit
Newsom and his wife are seen on the tarmac of San Francisco airport on Tuesday
San Francisco Mayor London Breed (in blue) was also at the airport with Newsom and his wife, plus San Francisco representative Kevin Mullin
He added: “By definition you have people in your home, you’re going to clean the house.
“We have 21 world leaders; tens of thousands of people come from all over the world.
‘What an opportunity to highlight the most special place in the world: San Francisco.’
Kelly said his confession was “incredible.”
“Gavin Newsom and San Francisco (Mayor) London Breed are cleaning up the city just in time for the Chinese leader to show up there with Joe Biden,” Kelly said on her podcast.
“They’re important, but real San Francisco residents can pound sand.”
President Joe Biden will meet with Xi Jinping for the first time in more than a year at the Moscone Center, located in the South of Market district.
The area outside the building was considered the largest of all the city’s open-air drug markets after it suddenly sprung up earlier this year. Normally between 50 and 100 dealers are active on the streets every day, usually fearlessly and in broad daylight
Kelly said the Democratic governor, widely seen as a future presidential candidate, had allowed locals to live in a “pigsty” and only took action when world leaders arrived.
“It’s so insulting,” she said.
“But – ‘Yes, if anyone comes over, you clean up the house.’
‘Yes, but most of us don’t live in a pigsty every day.
‘We have some small mess to clean up. It’s not a complete overhaul of where we want to raise our children.
“That’s what’s needed in San Francisco.
“He doesn’t care about the kids there.”
On Sunday evening, a Czech television crew covering the summit was held at gunpoint and robbed of their equipment.
Bohumil Vostal and his colleagues were filming outside the well-known City Lights bookstore at 5pm on Sunday when three masked men attacked them.
“They came at my cameraman with a gun pointed at his stomach and one at my head,” Vostal told The San Francisco Chronicle.
Vostal said the equipment was worth $18,000, and they also lost an entire day’s worth of footage.
Milan Nosek, a journalist from the Czech Republic, carries a camera on Columbus Avenue in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. Nosek and the team of television journalists he was with were robbed of their camera and other equipment nearby while covering the APEC summit
Bohumil Vostal and his colleagues were robbed in San Francisco on Sunday at 5 p.m
The cleanup has left several crime hotspots virtually unrecognizable, leaving many wondering why similar efforts weren’t undertaken sooner
San Francisco officials are seen interacting with a camp resident during their cleanup efforts on Saturday
“I’m one of the many people who read ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac, and I was so looking forward to visiting your city,” he said, adding that they had been having a fantastic day up until that point.
Vostal and his crew had taken photos of the Painted Ladies in Alamo Square; interviewed gallery owner Jonathan Carver Moore; and met with community figures in the Transgender District near South of Market and the Tenderloin, he told the newspaper.
Vostal’s cameraman went to Best Buy to purchase replacement equipment, and on Monday morning, San Francisco Mayor London Breed met with Vostal to apologize.
“All the people in San Francisco almost blame themselves, like they have so much regret for something they didn’t do,” he said.
The city is bracing for protests, and on Sunday activists angry about corporate profits, environmental abuses, poor working conditions and the war between Israel and Hamas marched in downtown San Francisco.
More protests are expected during the summit.
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said he expects several protests a day, although it is uncertain how many will take place. He warned against criminal behavior.
“People are welcome to exercise their constitutional rights in San Francisco, but we will not tolerate people committing acts of violence, destroying property or any other crime,” Scott said. “We will make arrests if necessary.”
Pro-Palestinian and anti-capitalist protesters were vocally against APEC on Sunday
Some protesters branded Xi a dictator and demanded he liberate Tibet, adding: “Your time is up!”
Protesters hold posters during the ‘No to APEC’ protest on the sidelines of the conference
San Francisco has a long tradition of loud and forceful protests, as well as trade negotiations. In 1999, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Seattle during a World Trade Organization conference.
Protesters managed to delay the start of that conference and attracted global attention as overwhelmed police fired tear gas and plastic bullets and arrested hundreds of people.
Chile withdrew as APEC host in 2019 due to mass protests.
When Thailand hosted the summit in Bangkok last year, pro-democracy protesters challenged the legitimacy of the Thai prime minister. Police fired rubber bullets into the crowd, wounding several protesters and a Reuters journalist.