South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem pushed back on critics questioning her decision to leave her state open during the coronavirus pandemic.
Noem is one of a handful of governors to leave her state open during the pandemic. While there have been 1,311 cases of coronavirus and seven related deaths, many have claimed Noem is taking dangerous actions by letting the people of South Dakota decide how to care for themselves. During an interview on Fox News, Noem defended her decisions.
“We’ve got one issue in a pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, but outside of that, two-thirds of our state has no cases or one case in an entire county. So we are doing very well as a state,” Noem explained. “We are addressing the one hot spot that we do have and aggressively testing in that area, but what you talked about Laura is exactly right.”
She continued, “We should be tracking who’s in the hospital, what the death rate is, and South Dakotans are doing a fantastic job following my recommendations, and we’ve been able to keep our businesses open and allow people to take on some personal responsibility.”
Noem addressed the outbreak at Smithfield Foods, a pork processing plant that was closed after an outbreak infected more than 200 employees. While many have blamed Noem’s refusal to close the state for the outbreak, the governor noted that Smithfield would have been open either way because it is a vital part of the food chain that is responsible for 5% of the nation’s pork supply.
“This processing plant is critical infrastructure,” Noem explained. “Regardless of a shelter-in-place order or not, it would have been up and running because it’s an important part of our nation’s food supply. So that’s what’s been happening on the national level is they’ve been not telling all the facts behind this. The people of South Dakota can be trusted to make good decisions. We have common sense.”
She added, “That’s why people want to live here, and that’s why I love living here.”
Noem noted that she does not believe it would be constitutional for her to close down the state. She explained, “I took an oath when I was in Congress, obviously to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I believe in our freedoms and liberties.”
“What I’ve seen across the country is so many people give up their liberties for just a little bit of security. And they don’t have to do that,” Noem said. “If a leader will take too much power in a time of crisis, that is how we lose our country. So I felt like I’ve had to use every single opportunity to talk about why we slow things down. We make decisions based on science and facts and make sure that we are not letting emotion grab a hold of the situation.”
