Why June 10? What was Gov. Ralph Northam thinking with that date? Is he trying to prove he’s got a bigger, whatever, than President Trump or other governors?
Maybe he’s trying to ruin the June 9 Republican Senate primary.
As if Republicans aren’t doing that themselves.
Seriously, who is even running for the nomination?
Anyway. Turns out it’s innocuous.
June 10 is 90 days from March 12.
That’s all.
March 12 is the date that Northam issued his state of emergency in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak.
That simple.
Buried in the details of that order: gobbledygook, gobbledygook, nonsense legal jargon, and then:
“This Executive Order shall be effective March 12, 2020, and shall remain in full force and in effect until June 10, 2020 unless sooner amended or rescinded by further executive order.”
Didn’t see that on first read, but that point was reinforced by a governor’s office spokesperson on Monday, emphasizing that the June 10 date highlighted for some reason in the first paragraph of today’s press release is just when the March 12 state of emergency is scheduled to end.
Which is to say, no, you’re not automatically shuttered for the next 10 weeks because Ralph Northam is trying to shut down the economy to get Trump, eff with the Republicans aiming to get their clocks cleaned by Mark Warner in November, or set up martial law to take your guns.
I mean, who knows on any of those, ultimately, but no, today’s stunner with the June 10 date being highlighted at the top of the press release is almost certainly just abject tone-deafness on the part of the people who put it together and disseminated it.
So what if a few businesses close, a few people jump off bridges, whatever, thinking there’s no way they can make it to June 10 in one piece?
It’s just a date.
Tone deafness.
What else should we expect from a guy who said it was him in the yearbook photo, then decided it wasn’t.
Note: that’s not a question, but a statement, of mistakes made by the voters in 2013 and 2017.
Story by Chris Graham
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