OAN host calls California's governor “Hitler” and LA mayor a Nazi over social distancing measures

Host Graham Ledger also lied about the governor closing down the state’s entire coast

Written by Noor Al-Sibai

Published

One America News Network host Graham Ledger called California Gov. Gavin Newsom “Hitler,” compared Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to Nazi Heinrich Himmler, and referred to a California county health official as “gestapo” over the state’s enforcement of social distancing measures during the April 30 episode of The Daily Ledger.

When discussing California beach closures, Ledger called Newsom, a Democrat, “the Hitler of the Golden State” and said the various city and county-level officials below him are “just following the orders of a radical governor.” He also called one of those officials a member of Newsom’s “gestapo.”

From the April 30, 2020, edition of One America News Network's The Daily Ledger

GRAHAM LEDGER (HOST): Just following the orders of a radical governor. This is how it works in the deep blue state of California. The Hitler of the Golden State, Gavin Newsom, gives the orders, and then his blue county-level lieutenants like that guy carry them out, no questions asked. So this is the new normal. For Riverside County, which is just east of Los Angeles: Wear a mask, stay inside, don't travel, subjugate your constitutional rights to the man in Sacramento, who, by the way, by decree is apparently going to shut down the entire 840 mile-coastline of the Golden State. Who would have known that in this constitutional republic, one man has that much power. 840 miles of liberty, now apparently about to go under lock down

During the segment, Ledger also lied when claiming that Newsom was going to, “by decree,” “shut down the entire 840 mile-coastline.” 

As the San Francisco Chronicle reported on April 30, state officials pushed to shut down all beaches, but Newsom decided only to temporarily close beaches in Orange County, where they had become crowded during a heatwave. 

Earlier in the episode, the host called Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti “this Heimrich Himmler little person,” presumably referring to Heinrich Himmler, the second-most powerful German Nazi Party leader, who played an instrumental role in the Holocaust.  

From the April 30, 2020, edition of One America News' The Daily Ledger

GRAHAM LEDGER (HOST): Newsom, like all good dictators, does not like to be challenged, does he? He wants people to simply comply, and if they don't, they will pay the price. But Newsom cannot carry out his attack on liberty without the help of his local gestapo, like in Los Angeles, Newsom has a very loyal lieutenant there by the name of Eric Garcetti. 

Together, Mayor Garcetti and Gov. Newsom are crushing commerce in the nation's second-largest city, but their draconian orders are also crushing lives. And you know what? Some California residents have had enough. 

...

From a constitutional, from a liberty, from a freedom, from a Bill of Rights perspective, this guy is clearly out of control. And he does not like it. You see the look on his face when somebody challenges his authority and his nonsensical crap that he spews out every day -- excuse me, but that's all it is. He does not like it.

But he has this Heimrich Himmler little person in Los Angeles by the name of Eric Garcetti, who happens to run the nation's second largest state. So between the two of them, they have a literal stranglehold on the economy, but they also have a stranglehold, Mark, on liberty.