South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) is imploring Americans who have not yet voted to consider the “consequences” of an electoral victory for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
“When you have leaders overstep their authority in a time of crisis, that’s when you break this country,” Noem said during an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday. “And Joe Biden has said that he would shut this country down again. That is not an authority that he has, and I wouldn’t have been able to do my job the last seven, eight months in South Dakota if Joe Biden had been in the White House.”
She continued, “So, people need to think about the real consequences of what the media has done to drive fear into their homes, and to cause people to focus on emotions rather than the real-life consequences they’re going to face if they let this Joe Biden get into the presidency.”
When pressed by Fox’s Neil Cavuto on whether another shut down would be warranted, she said, “I don’t believe, Neil, that there’s any proof that these shutdowns work.”
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She went on to say that “national reporters” have emailed her to say that her handling of the coronavirus pandemic have proven that shutdowns do not work.
“Because of our state, and how we’ve operated here, we have proven that it doesn’t stop the virus to lockdown your state or your country,” she said.
Noem argued that South Dakota officials were able to take care of COVID-19 patients without, “But also we haven’t devastated peoples’ lives or mental health.”
Noem’s comments come as the country is experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases. On Monday, the country reported 93,581 new cases of the virus.
Throughout the pandemic, Noem has resisted a state-wide lockdown and mask-wearing mandate aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. And for several months, the number of new infections remained relatively low compared to the rest of the country.
However, South Dakota is now experiencing one of the highest surges of the virus per capita in the country.
Biden has vowed to follow the advice of scientists in his response to the virus and has said he would implement a lockdown if scientists recommended that approach.
However, in recent weeks he has argued that he would “shut down the virus, not the country.”
