Said Rachel to the people of Mississippi, "He [Reeves] is legally blocking towns and cities in your state from doing a better job than he is at keeping you alive."

Think about that.

Source: Raw Story

On Wednesday, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow shone a light on how Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS) is using his authority to block local officials from protecting the public health as the coronavirus pandemic gets worse.

RACHEL MADDOW: “Last night we talked about the governor of Mississippi, announcing that there would not be a statewide stay-at-home order in his state either because he said ‘Mississippi is not China. But today … the governor of Mississippi today did something brand new. He issued his own executive order that overrides and overturns any actions that have been taken by cities and towns in his state, even as he is refusing to act statewide.”

“So take, for example, the beautiful city of Tupelo, Mississippi.Birthplace of Elvis Presley, right? World famous. On Saturday, the mayor of Tupelo, Mississippi, ordered a stay-at-home order for that city. He banned gatherings of more than ten people. He ordered nonessential businesses to shut in Tupelo … yesterday, the city council in Tupelo met and in a unanimous bipartisan vote, they voted to affirm and ratify those rules that the mayor put in place in Tupelo. But today, the governor of Mississippi superseded that. Today, the governor of Mississippi said Tupelo and any other city or town in the state can’t do anything like that. Only his rules apply.”

“I will just say this to the people of Mississippi. You should know that your government is breaking new ground when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. The governor of your state today has pioneered a whole new kind of response to the coronavirus pandemic, in which he is legally blocking towns and cities in your state from doing a better job than he is at keeping you alive. He is undoing public health measures and insisting that the state will not have them.”

And what of this executive order by Governor Tate Reeves? From Jackson Free Press:

Gov. Tate Reeves signed an executive order early this evening superseding a patchwork of local bans on public gatherings in Mississippi and other heightened restrictions that several municipalities across the state have ordered or considered in the wake of COVID-19’s spread inside Mississippi. The state reached 320 official cases today, up 300 percent since 80 known cases on Friday.

The order seems to declare that most types of businesses in Mississippi are "essential" and thus exempt from social-distancing requirements suggested in the order. "The uninterrupted delivery of essential services and functions is vital to infrastructure viability, critical to maintain continuity of functions critical to public health and safety, as well as economic and national security, and is crucial to community resilience, continuity of essential functions and to promote the security and safety of Mississippi residents even as the nation limits human interaction and engages in social distancing," the order stated.

Notably, Reeves' executive order supersedes any orders by local mayors or other governing body in Mississippi that conflict with the businesses and organizations he deems exempt as "essential" businesses.

As for Tate Reeves, he blasted Rachel Maddow on Wednesday after her first report on his malfeasance in Mississippi. He called what she said "a dangerous lie." What he thinks of her even more scathing report last night remains to be seen.