U.S. media revealed that the mayor of Austin, Texas, had traveled to Mexico with his family in November, and recorded a video during the trip to persuade people not to go out.
The Associated Press reported on the 2nd, citing local media reports that in early November this year, Austin Mayor Adler held an outdoor wedding for his daughter with 20 people in a hotel near the city at a time when the number of cases and hospitalizations across the United States were rising. The morning after the wedding, Adler and seven other guests boarded a private plane to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and spent a week at a local resort.
It is reported that during his vacation in Mexico, Adler posted a video on Facebook, a social platform. “This is not the time to relax,” he said in the video. “We need to stay at home. If necessary in the future, we (the local government) may have to close some companies (to curb the spread of the epidemic).” The Associated Press reported that the official did not seem to “here to his instructions”.
In response, Adler issued a statement apologizing for the trip, saying that he “set a bad example” and regretted planning the trip. But Adler also said that he had not violated any regulations. In an interview with the New York Times, he said, “Someone may look at me and say, ‘He went on a trip, but no one advised people not to travel at that time.” According to the report, before Thanksgiving after Adler returned home, local health officials raised the city’s epidemic prevention and control guidelines to phase 4, that is, non-essential travel is not encouraged.
Adler is not the first government official to “do not follow his own instructions”. California Gov. Newsom was also under investigation last month for attending a birthday party at a restaurant near San Francisco while urging people to stay home. Hancock, mayor of Denver, Colorado, also flew to Mississippi to visit his family for the Thanksgiving holiday, although he appealed to people not to travel on social media.
