U.S. citizens: Demand Congress investigate soaring excess death rates
(LifeSiteNews) — South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, a shortlist contender to be former President Donald Trump’s running mate for vice president of the United States in 2024, found herself the subject of a particularly scorching X Community Note recently for deceptively declaring herself the “only governor who never closed a single business.”
“I was the only governor who never closed a single business,” Noem posted on X (formerly Twitter) February 23. “I never mandated anything to my people. I never told anyone they couldn’t go to church. We were the only state to turn down elevated unemployment benefits – because our people want to work.”
I was the only governor who never closed a single business.
I never mandated anything to my people. I never told anyone they couldn't go to church.
We were the only state to turn down elevated unemployment benefits – because our people want to work.
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) February 23, 2024
The next day, the post received a fact-check via the platform’s user-driven Community Notes feature, in more blunt language that the normally dispassionate tone the notes typically feature.
“Kristi Noem is lying,” it said. “She not only closed what she could, she sent a bill to her legislature asking to give her the power to close more. To her ire, the legislature denied her this power. After it became popular to not have locked down she pretended it was her idea.”
READ: Trump has an Achilles heel: Americans know they were lied to about COVID
The note links to a March 2020 Associated Press report, from relatively early in the COVID pandemic, about Noem ordering public schools to close for a week and all nonessential state employees to work from home.
Other social media users responded to Noem’s claim with news reports about the governor extending a partial stay-at-home order in April, business restrictions not being eased until May, and Noem seeking additional lockdown powers from the South Dakota Legislature, and only being partially successful.
Why is Kristi Noem lying?pic.twitter.com/vAJkoBjUy5https://t.co/Lm87kVqrVv
— Stinson Norwood (@snorman1776) February 24, 2024
4/17/20
Kristi Noem:“I need you to maintain these guidelines for several more weeks”
🔒 Don’t be in a group over ten people
🔒 Stay six feet away from others
🔒 Only leave your home for essential trips
🔒 Turn on your Location Servicespic.twitter.com/zwdwwzElHw
— Stinson Norwood (@snorman1776) February 24, 2024
“Noem sought 11 new emergency measures on the session’s final day, so that South Dakota could try to be more effective against the COVID-19 coronavirus,” KELO reported in March 2020. “Nine passed,” but lawmakers rejected “HB 1297 that would have given the state health secretary the power to close or restrict any private or public facility to slow the spread of a communicable disease” during a declared emergency; and “SB 191 that would have let counties, municipalities and community improvement districts enact emergency and temporary ordinances to suppress disease.”
The snafu comes as Noem, who also drew conservative ire in 2021 for flip-flopping on legislation to protect women’s sports (she ultimately signed a law to do so a year later), is reportedly under serious contention for the number-two slot in Trump’s 2024 election campaign.
Last week, Trump confirmed in an interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham that Noem was one of six “good” and “solid” names on his running mate shortlist. On Friday, Noem stressed to attendees of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. that she was “one of the first people to endorse Donald J. Trump to be our president,” and suggested that Republicans who challenged him for the nomination only did so “for personal benefit” such as a “spotlight for a period of time.”
READ: British MP says midwives see ‘more dead babies than alive babies’ some days after COVID shot rollout
On Monday, Noem’s office confirmed to the Dakota Scout that she was extending her weekend trip to attend CPAC for one day in order to take a private meeting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort and residence in Florida, the subject of which has not yet been revealed.
Had Noem’s February 23 boast been true, it could have been an asset to Trump’s ticket given the former president’s own compromised record on COVID. However, it appears COVID is not a significant factor in voters’ calculations, given the relative ease with which Trump prevailed over his closest GOP challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Additionally, while the COVID stance of environmental activist and longtime Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was once expected to draw votes from Trump with his independent candidacy, polls now appear to show Kennedy’s presence in the race hurting President Joe Biden more.
Polls currently have Trump leading Biden, although voters also say that likely convictions in left-wing venues will make them less likely to support him. It’s also speculated that Democrats may replace Biden, given serious concern among Democrats over his age and mental health.
U.S. citizens: Demand Congress investigate soaring excess death rates