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Fact check: Did Gov. Reeves keep Mississippi ‘open for business’ during pandemic?

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1 year ago

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To hear Gov. Tate Reeves talk on the reelection trail, one would think that during COVID-19, he was a stalwart champion of individual and business freedom and that Mississippi never locked down or suffered the restrictions other states saw.

“When we were contemplating what to do and when to do it during COVID, we made a conscious decision to keep our businesses open, to say to the world that Mississippi is open for business,” Reeves said at a Sept. 14 press conference. “And I’m proud of the fact that we protected both lives and livelihoods during those challenging times of 2020, 2021 and beyond.”

Reeves on the campaign trail has also vowed to buck any federal mask-wearing mandate as COVID-19 cases pick up again.

But that’s a little revisionist of the first-term governor. The fact is he issued many orders restricting or directing what Mississippians and businesses could do over about a year of the pandemic. He often did it in a piecemeal, confusing way. He ordered a lockdown, closing “non-essential” businesses. And he ordered mask wearing.

Reeves managed to draw fire from all quarters on his pandemic responses or in turns lack thereof. He issued dozens of piecemeal, hang-fire and confusing orders on business closures or operations, mask wearing and other measures. He was criticized by both those wanting stringent public health regulations and those who believe government should be hands off and businesses operate unfettered amidst the pandemic. He left many decisions on restrictions up to local governments, and drew criticism from local officials for lack of state leadership.

READ MORE: Fact check: Brandon Presley’s claim on USM donors benefiting from welfare scandal

One of Reeves’ opponents in his first run for governor, conservative firebrand and former state Rep. Robert Foster of Desoto County, at the time blasted Reeves for “riding the fence” and going with political winds with his COVID-19 orders. Foster still maintains the governor was at times too heavy handed and eschewed personal liberty.

“While I appreciate the governor’s latest remarks stating that he will not again follow bad advice from activist medical professionals like Dr. Fauci and Dr. Dobbs, I think he should say more,” Foster said. “While most conservative Christians I know have forgiven him for his emotional rather than rational actions during the COVID hysteria, we haven’t forgotten how he mishandled it. He issued many unconstitutional mandates and gave tiny tyrants all over the state unbridled power, and they abused it. They used it to hurt small businesses. They used it to hurt our elderly in nursing homes and our helpless children in schools and daycares. They even used it to close churches for a short time.

“I for one think a public apology is not only due but possibly necessary for many to consider voting for him to be our governor again and not skipping the race altogether on the ballot in November,” Foster said. “My advice is free, unsolicited, yet the truth. Take it or leave it.”

Reeves issued dozens of pandemic executive orders or supplements from March 2020 to November 2021. He mostly attempted to issue orders on a county-by-county basis. But he also, as the state’s infections and deaths waxed and waned — at times leading the nation per capita — issued statewide orders. Then rescinded them. Then reinstated some because cases grew again.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves straddling fences, catching flak from all quarters

Reeves acknowledged in a June 16, 2021, press conference that his biggest regret in managing the state’s response to the pandemic was ordering non-essential business to shutter during certain points.

“It turns out about 80% or 85% of all businesses were defined as essential during that time, but as I look back on it I realize that I made a mistake, because the fact of the matter is that every single business in Mississippi is essential,” Reeves said.

Reeves has decried the “heavy hand of government,” fending off criticism that he should have done more, sooner. But he also managed to issue enough pandemic edicts to rile up the more libertarian wing of his base. Along the way, he also managed to insult state medical leaders, once referring to them as “so-called experts.”

Mississippi saw its first case of COVID-19 on March 11, 2020, while Reeves was on vacation in Spain. He returned to Mississippi on March 14 and declared a state of emergency. On March 19, the same day California declared the nation’s first “stay at home” order, Reeves ordered all Mississippi public schools closed until at least April 17 of that year.

Reeves in late March of 2020 on social media vowed he would not issue a statewide lockdown or shelter-in-place like many states were enacting. He added, “Mississippi will never be China.”

But then on April 1, 2020, under pressure from medical and local government leaders, Reeves issued Executive Order 1466, making Mississippi the 39th state to issue a lockdown, or shelter-in-place order.

The lockdown was initially set to expire on April 17 of that year, but Reeves extended it to April 27. He then issued a string of “Safer at Home” executive orders over months that relaxed or enacted various restrictions on restaurants and other businesses and parks and recreation venues.

While eschewing state health leaders’ pleas to order a statewide mask mandate, Reeves slowly issued mask-wearing executive orders for counties in dribs and drabs that eventually covered most of the state as infections and deaths in Mississippi continued to set records.

Then on Aug. 4, 2020, Reeves issued a statewide mask mandate, saying “I want to see college football.” The mandate would be extended to the end of September. During his statewide mask mandate, Reeves would face criticism for attending out-of-state political events mask-less. He would later catch flak for holding a large Christmas party at the Governor’s Mansion when such gatherings were prohibited.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves plans Christmas parties despite his own orders and record COVID-19 numbers

When cases began to spike after the mask mandate was lifted, Reeves went back to issuing mask orders for groups of counties. Reeves refused health leaders’ calls to reinstate a statewide mask mandate, but by December had ordered them for 77 of the state’s 82 counties.

In early March of 2021, a Reeves order ended most COVID-19 restrictions for citizens and businesses. Only school mask mandates remained and limits on attendance of events in indoor arenas — with these set to end at the end of the month.

On April 30, 2021, Reeves removed the last of the pandemic restrictions. But Mississippi was among the last of states to end its COVID-19 state of emergency.

House Speaker Philip Gunn in June of 2021 sent a letter to Reeves and released it publicly questioning why the COVID-19 state of emergency remained in effect and called for Reeves to rescind it. Reeves countered that the declaration was still needed in order to continue pay National Guardsmen activated for the pandemic.

Reeves did not end the COVID-19 state of emergency until Nov. 20, 2021, well after many other states had done so. For instance, Alabama and Georgia ended their states of emergency in early July of that year, Florida in June and Arkansas in May.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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An ad supporting Jenifer Branning finds imaginary liberals on the Mississippi Supreme Court

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14 minutes ago

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November 24, 2024

By

mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-11-24 06:00:00

The Improve Mississippi PAC claims in advertising that the state Supreme Court “is in danger of being dominated by liberal justices” unless Jenifer Branning is elected in Tuesday’s runoff.

Improve Mississippi made the almost laughable claim in both radio commercials and mailers that were sent to homes in the court’s central district, where a runoff election will be held on Tuesday.

Improve Mississippi is an independent, third party political action committee created to aid state Sen. Jenifer Branning of Neshoba County in her efforts to defeat longtime Central District Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens of Copiah County.

The PAC should receive an award or at least be considered for an honor for best fiction writing.

At least seven current members of the nine-member Supreme Court would be shocked to know anyone considered them liberal.

It is telling that the ads do not offer any examples of “liberal” Supreme Court opinions issued by the current majority. It is even more telling that there have been no ads by Improve Mississippi or any other group citing the liberal dissenting opinions written or joined by Kitchens.

Granted, it is fair and likely accurate to point out that Branning is more conservative than Kitchens. After all, Branning is considered one of the more conservative members of a supermajority Republican Mississippi Senate.

As a member of the Senate, for example, she voted against removing the Confederate battle emblem from the Mississippi state flag, opposed Medicaid expansion and an equal pay bill for women.

And if she is elected to the state Supreme Court in Tuesday’s runoff election, she might be one of the panel’s more conservative members. But she will be surrounded by a Supreme Court bench full of conservatives.

A look at the history of the members of the Supreme Court might be helpful.

Chief Justice Michael Randolph originally was appointed to the court by Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who is credited with leading the effort to make the Republican Party dominant in Mississippi. Before Randolph was appointed by Barbour, he served a stint on the National Coal Council — appointed to the post by President Ronald Reagan who is considered an icon in the conservative movement.

Justices James Maxwell, Dawn Beam, David Ishee and Kenneth Griffis were appointed by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant.

Only three members of the current court were not initially appointed to the Supreme Court by conservative Republican governors: Kitchens, Josiah Coleman and Robert Chamberlin. All three got their initial posts on the court by winning elections for full eight-year terms.

But Chamberlin, once a Republican state senator from Southaven, was appointed as a circuit court judge by Barbour before winning his Supreme Court post. And Coleman was endorsed in his election effort by both the Republican Party and by current Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who also contributed to his campaign.

Only Kitchens earned a spot on the court without either being appointed by a Republican governor or being endorsed by the state Republican Party.

The ninth member of the court is Leslie King, who, like Kitchens, is viewed as not as conservative as the other seven justices. King, former chief judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals, was originally appointed to the Supreme Court by Barbour, who to his credit made the appointment at least in part to ensure that a Black Mississippian remained on the nine-member court.

It should be noted that Beam was defeated on Nov. 5 by David Sullivan, a Gulf Coast municipal judge who has a local reputation for leaning conservative. Even if Sullivan is less conservative when he takes his new post in January, there still be six justices on the Supreme Court with strong conservative bonafides, not counting what happens in the Branning-Kitchens runoff.

Granted, Kitchens is next in line to serve as chief justice should Randolph, who has been on the court since 2004, step down. The longest tenured justice serves as the chief justice.

But to think that Kitchens as chief justice would be able to exert enough influence to force the other longtime conservative members of the court to start voting as liberals is even more fiction.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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On this day in 1968

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46 minutes ago

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November 24, 2024

By

mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-24 07:00:00

Nov. 24, 1968

Credit: Wikipedia

Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver fled the U.S. to avoid imprisonment on a parole violation. He wrote in “Soul on Ice”: “If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America.” 

The Arkansas native began to be incarcerated when he was still in junior high and soon read about Malcolm X. He began writing his own essays, drawing the praise of Norman Mailer and others. That work helped him win parole in 1966. His “Soul on Ice” memoir, written from Folsom state prison, described his journey from selling marijuana to following Malcolm X. The book he wrote became a seminal work in Black literature, and he became a national figure. 

Cleaver soon joined the Black Panther Party, serving as the minister of information. After a Panther shootout with police that left him injured, one Panther dead and two officers wounded, he jumped bail and fled the U.S. In 1977, after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, he returned to the U.S. pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of assault and served 1,200 hours of community service. 

From that point forward, “Mr. Cleaver metamorphosed into variously a born-again Christian, a follower of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a Mormon, a crack cocaine addict, a designer of men’s trousers featuring a codpiece and even, finally, a Republican,” The New York Times wrote in his 1998 obituary. His wife said he was suffering from mental illness and never recovered.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1867

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1 day ago

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November 23, 2024

By

mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-23 07:00:00

Nov. 23, 1867

Extract from the Reconstructed Constitution of the State of Louisiana, 1868. Credit: Library of Congress

The Louisiana Constitutional Convention, composed of 49 White delegates and 49 Black delegates, met in New Orleans. The new constitution became the first in the state’s history to include a bill of rights. 

The document gave property rights to married women, funded public education without segregated schools, provided full citizenship for Black Americans, and eliminated the Black Codes of 1865 and property qualifications for officeholders. 

The voters ratified the constitution months later. Despite the document, prejudice and corruption continued to reign in Louisiana, and when Reconstruction ended, the constitution was replaced with one that helped restore the rule of white supremacy.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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