Fox News host Tucker Carlson criticized Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her practicing “heavy authoritarianism” in her approach to dealing with the coronavirus pandemic in her state.
During a Monday night “Tucker Carlson Tonight” monologue, Carlson guessed that Whitmer’s motives could be a desire to be presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate.
After playing Whitmer’s original March lock-down announcement and giving her credit, the Fox News host gave her credit for saying “what a lot of people were saying last month” based on dire death projection models.
However, now that the models have been modified significantly down and Michigan’s “healthcare system has not collapsed,” the state’s governor is “doing just the opposite” of celebrating.
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Instead, Whitmer has “moved aggressively to seize even more control of her state and the lives of the people who live there,” measures that have included a ban on all “gatherings anywhere for any reason of any size including in people’s private homes, as if she’s allowed to do that.”
“If Michigan residents own more than one home, Whitmer has banned them from traveling between them,” Carlson noted. “Outside Detroit it’s very common, especially for working class people, to have a cabin up north. You’re not allowed to go there. And then she kept going. Not only did governor Whitmer close most stores in the state, she banned the few that remained open from selling items that she deemed unnecessary.”
The Daily Caller co-founder outlined two recent scientific discoveries: first, that the coronavirus likely spreads, not mainly by touching surfaces, but by “people being closer together over a longer period of time,” something a “mask might mitigate,” and second, that Sweden has never “adopted the Chinese model, the authoritarian model in order to contain coronavirus yet so far Sweden has fewer cases of coronavirus and fewer deaths than the state of Michigan does.” (RELATED: Michigan Governor Deems Gardening Supplies — Including Fruit And Vegetable Seeds — ‘Non-Essential’)
Carlson said that the fact that Whitmer doesn’t “care” about those developments suggests that it’s not “about science,” but rather “about power.”
“Governor Whitmer wants to be the vice president,” he said. “She wants to be chosen by Joe Biden. That’s pretty clear. And she’s calculated that there is no penalty for petty authoritarianism. In fact, petty authoritarianism might make even mediocre politicians look strong and decisive. That’s her bet. She is willing to destroy the people in her state in exchange.”