Actually it was Tate Reeves' policies as governor of Mississippi-- not Reeves personally-- that has made his state the COVID Death capital of the world. Mississippi has the highest per capita number of deaths of anywhere in the U.S.-- 3,096 dead Mississippians per million residents. There are 3 places on earth that have worse rates-- Peru, Bosnia and Hungary, although Reeves is likely to overtake Hungary later this week and Bosnia a few days later. As Jake Tapper explained when he introduced Reeves to his State of the Union audience today, about one out of every 320 people in Mississippi have died of coronavirus.
42% of Mississippians are fully vaccinated but that doesn't tell the story of the counties with the most morons. How do I know where the most morons live? Easy: These are the 8 counties that gave the highest percentage of votes to Trump in 2020, over 80% each-- along with their vaccination rates:
George Co.- 87.9% Trump (33% vaccinated)
Itawamba Co.- 87.2% Trump (30% vaccinated)
Tishomingo Co.- 86.8% Trump (32% vaccinated)
Greene Co.- 82.5% Trump (31% vaccinated)
Union Co.- 81.8% Trump (33% vaccinated)
Pearl River Co.- 81.5% Trump (36% vaccinated)
Alcorn Co.- 81.2% Trump (32% vaccinated)
Pontotoc Co.- 80.4% Trump (35% vaccinated)
And, for comparison's sake, there were 5 counties that gave Trump the smallest percentage of their vote-- easily described as the counties with the smartest people. And look at that, each one of them has a higher percentage of vaccinated people than the Trump counties. What a coincidence!
Claiborne Co.- 13.5% Trump (45% vaccinated)
Jefferson Co.- 13.6% Trump (57% vaccinated)
Holmes Co.- 16.9% Trump (48% vaccinated)
Noxubee Co.- 23.2% Trump (47% vaccinated)
Hinds Co.- 25.1% Trump (48% vaccinated)
Right from the start, Reeves sounded like a raving idiot on the show: "The reality is, this is an attack by the president on hardworking Americans and hardworking Mississippians, who he wants to choose between getting a jab in their arm and their ability to feed their families. And I just believe that's a false choice. The president does not have the authority to do this. He knows he doesn't have the authority to do this, in my opinion, but he wants to change the political narrative away from Afghanistan and away from the other issues that are driving his poll numbers into the ground and focus on anything, particularly a political fight, other than those issues... [W]we also have to understand that, as we look forward, if this president has the ability to mandate vaccines, what powers do we not grant this president? What does he not have the ability to do? And for my friends on the left, I just want to point something out. This should scare as you well. This should scare Democrats just as much as it scares Republicans, because the fact is, if we give unilateral authority by one individual to do anything that he wants to do, whether it's a jab in the arm or anything else, then this country is in deep, deep trouble. And that's not something that I'm willing to stand by and allow him to do. Obviously, we have made it very clear that we are prepared to sue once we actually see the rule."
He didn't get any better as he went on. "[I]n Mississippi, our legislature is a part-time legislature. I wonder if in America if our Congress was part-time, we wouldn't be in a better position." Tapper asked him what he was babbling about.
Tapper: Better position than what? Your state is second worst... how can you say that?
Reeves: Let's talk about where we are and why we are there. In large part, just like the summer of 2020, it was the Sunbelt states that saw the initial surge from the Delta variant. It started-- the first state that I saw seeing upticks was Missouri, and then it was Arkansas, and then it was Louisiana. And now it's Mississippi. Our surge went from less than 100 cases per day in Mississippi to 3, 600, much like what happened in the country of Israel, much what-- like what happened in the country of Great Britain and in England. We saw a very quick spike, and now we're seeing a very could-- a very, very quick decline in the total number of cases. We spiked at about 3,600. We're now half of that in our state. Unfortunately, fatalities is a lagging indicator when it comes to the virus. It is a lagging indicator. And so timing has as much to do with where-- with that statistic that you used as anything else, as we see in 2021 what occurred in 2020 as the Delta variant moves around the country. and it's going to happen. The president wants you to believe that the Delta variant is only affecting Republicans in red states. That's just not true. That is not a fact."
...Tapper: Governor, if Mississippi were a country, you would have the second worst per capita death toll in the world. And I'm saying, are you going to do anything to try to change that? ... You seem to be very, very activated when it comes to fighting the mandate from the federal government. And I understand the arguments you're making. But what President Biden is trying to do is save lives. Now, you can think that policy or it's unconstitutional, and that's fine. We can have that discussion. We already have. But he's trying to save lives. I'm saying to you, your way's not working. And whether you say it's a lagging indicator or whatever your argument is, Mississippi now has, if it were its own country, the second worst per capita death rate in the world, behind only Peru. And I'm saying, are you going to try to do anything to change that? And I'm not hearing an answer.
Reeves: The president's not focused on saving lives. The president's focused on a-- taking unilateral action to show his power, to show that he's doing something, but that's not going to solve things.
How could anyone vote for a man this stupid as governor. Oh yeah...