In Brief: Tim Walz Was a COVID-19 Tyrant
Harris’s VP candidate set up hotline for reporting neighbors not complying with mandates.
Reason’s Robby Soave observes that Kamala Harris’s recent pick of Minnesota Demo Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate should be anything but comforting to Americans concerned about individual rights.
Soave says that Walz’s record exposed him as a dangerous leftist radical, writing, “He referred to socialism as synonymous with neighborliness, pursued an extremely progressive governing agenda, and earned an F from the Cato Institute on fiscal policy.”
When the coronavirus was first spreading, Walz was an enthusiastic promoter of social distancing rules. He described the crowds in public, outdoor spaces as “a little too big.” He even defended Minnesota's ridiculous hotline for COVID-19 snitches. That’s right: Walz’s government maintained a method for people to report their neighbors for failing to abide by social distancing rules. Walz insisted in a recent interview that “one person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness”; denouncing one’s neighbors as insufficiently loyal to government policies is a fundamental aspect of socialism, however. …
And though Walz instructed police to merely issue citations to people caught violating stay-at-home orders — which is still bad enough — he also maintained the right, via executive order, to issue $1,000 fines and send violators to jail for 90 days. His government maintained that private, indoor gatherings should be limited to 10 people. Outdoor gatherings were arbitrarily capped at 25 people. On July 23, 2020, Walz declared a statewide mask mandate for most indoor spaces and even some outdoor spaces.
Furthermore, Walz played up bogus “science” claims in defense of his masking mandates.
What followed was the implementation of one of the stupidest COVID-19 rules: Diners at restaurants had to wear masks while walking to their table and moving about the establishment but were allowed to go maskless as long as they were eating and drinking.
Later, in November and December of 2020, Walz issued and extended orders for restaurants, gyms, and other businesses to shut down. This included outdoor dining service for eating establishments. Over 150 businesses formed the Reopen Minnesota Coalition and urged the governor to relent, but Walz was unmoved.
But one of Walz’s worst pandemic-related actions was his decision to send COVID-infected elderly patients back to their nursing homes.
He was also one of the foremost defenders of a monstrous COVID-19 policy choice: sending sick, elderly patients back to nursing homes where the infection often spread to other vulnerable people, causing a disproportionate number of coronavirus deaths in such settings. A cover-up of nursing home deaths in New York brought an end to the political ambitions of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who lied about his involvement in this policy. But Walz was a fellow practitioner; in fact, Walz said that it was “not a mistake” to release sick people back to nursing homes. That statement alone reflects poor enough judgment as to be disqualifying for the pursuit of higher office.
