Crop ’til you Drop

Every picture tells a story, even if it’s cropped.

On June 19^, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came to Orange County where he had two afternoon events. A meeting with OC Business leaders which was closed to press coverage. And a meeting with an Asian-American Diaspora Rountable which was also closed to press coverage.

From a photo shared by Irvine Council member Melissa Fox, who is a candidate for Assembly in AD-68, some of the usual terrible GOP suspects are in the photo with Pompeo. State Rep (and Fox opponent) Steven Choi, Congresional candidates Young Kim and Michelle Steele, and Irvine council member Anthony Kuo.

Fox correctly notes that no one in the photo is wearing a mask to protect against COVID19 and everything is standing close together in violation of every social distancing guideline.

Here’s the photo she shared on a Facebook page:

And the photo doesn’t lie.  That’s Pompeo with a bunch of Asian American Republicans with no masks and no social distancing.

Now here’s the problem.

It’s a cropped photo to hide the presence of one of Fox’s own city committee appointees who also attended the meeting.  Zhihi Li is Melissa Fox’s appointee on the Irvine Children, Youth and Families Committee and she was left out of the photo Fox shared.

Who is Ms. Li?  Here you go:

Now

Fox subsequently appointed Li to Zhihi Li to the Irvine Children, Youth and Families Committee.

Here’s an agenda for that group with Li listed on the committee:

And I buried the lede.  Here’s the full photograph of the Asian-American group with Pompeo:

That’s Ms. Li, fourth from the right. No mask.  No social distancing.

I’m all for shaming Republicans, especially those running for office and loyal to President Trump, for being COVIDIOTS and not wearing masks.  But I’m presuming Li is a Democrat.  What’s her excuse here?  And the bigger question is: why was she cropped from the photo?  To score cheap points? Or save her from embarrassment?