Sunday morning, I learned that Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves would be a guest on CNN’s “State of the Union’’ program, and I recognized an old familiar feeling. It was like being called to the principal’s office: You don’t know what’s going to happen, but you know it isn’t going to be good.
The governor’s appearance proved every bit as bad as I feared it would be.
Program host Jake Tapper presented a straight-forward question: “Your state, if it were a country, would be second only to Peru in COVID-19 deaths per capita. Your way is failing. My question is what are you and the Mississippi Legislature going to do to try to change this horrible statistic?”
Let me pause here for a couple of observations before sharing Reeves’ non-answers in a case where an interview deteriorated into a game of dodgeball.
Really, Peru? Quite frankly, I expected better of you.
Now, as for Mississippi. To date, 9,270 Mississippians have died from COVID-19. That’s 1-in-320 people, at the time of the interview, the highest death rate in the nation. Until only recently, the state had the lowest vaccination rate in the nation and still ranks near the bottom in that category, with almost 6 in 10 Mississippians still unvaccinated.
Now, back to our regularly-scheduled episode of “Pin the Tail on the Jackass.”
The question was: What does the governor and Legislature intend to do about Mississippi’s terrible COVID-19 death rate?
Reeves provided a buffet of answers, at one point noting that Mississippi has a part-time legislature and speculating that the country would be better off if Congress met only part-time.
If I were Tapper, I would have asked a follow-up question:
“Governor, do you have some sort of medical condition, perhaps Tourette’s Syndrome? Because that would explain why you just blurt out irrelevant comments at random intervals.”
Tapper, instead, kept hammering on his first question.
Reeves talked about President Biden’s “unconstitutional” vaccine mandate (somehow when Reeves issued executive orders they’re appropriate, but when the President does it it’s tyranny), the fact that other states have high COVID-19 death rates, too, the death rates in Israel and “the United Kingdom and Britain” (or whatever it is they call that place) and how people “should talk to their doctor about potentially getting the vaccine” like, you know, when you chop your hand off with a circular saw and you talk to your doctor about potentially going to the emergency room.
Finally, Reeves seemed to settle on what he felt was his best argument: Deaths are a lagging indicator. (I ain’t making this up, folks, I swear).
Reeves’ position was that all Mississippi has to do is wait around, do nothing, and see if other states’ COVID death rates will eclipse ours as the virus outbreaks increase nation-wide. Who knows? With any luck, we may get all the way down to the fourth or fifth-worst in COVID-19 deaths per capita. Won’t that be a happy damn day! I think we can all appreciate the Governor’s spirit of optimism on this point.
Lagging indicator?
Tate Reeves himself is a lagging indicator — a lagging indicator of just how bad a decision Mississippi voters made in the last Governor’s election.
From the outset, Reeves’ leadership in this crisis has been weak, ineffective, wishy-washy. Every decision has been a political calculation.
He has constantly tried to avoid making the tough and unpopular but necessary decisions to appease and appeal to an ill-informed base where the state motto might as well be “Oh yeah? Well, you’re not the boss of me!”
In truth, Tapper didn’t have to ask why Mississippi’s COVID-19 death rate is among the worst in the world.
He was looking at the answer during the entire interview.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.