Asa Hutchinson is in a bind.

The Arkansas governor (guess which party) has eased all social distancing regulations in his state. This has resulted in the single largest one-day increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases. It's his fault.

He told Fox News Sunday that he still takes the virus very seriously, "but you can’t cloister yourself at home, that is just contrary to the American spirit.”

The American Spirit doesn't tell you to spread a pandemic to your fellow man all because you want to go to the gym.

So he tried to outdo the myopic Rick Scott of Florida saying, “I make the comparison with, you can be in an automobile and it's very risky, but you can manage the risk by wearing a seat-belt.”

Duh! It took people years to finally acquiesce on wearing seat belts. It took laws and tickets to get some to comply. And if you get in a car and DO NOT wear a seat belt, it doesn't infect your community with a virus.

Wallace showed the Arkansas governor a host of graphs showing how the reopening of the states caused a massive rise in COVID-19 cases.

Host Chris Wallace then asked the governor if he has the virus under control in Arkansas.

Hutchinson went on a bloviated monologue trying to defend his decision. "You manage the risk by increasing the testing."

He said the rise in cases was because they're testing more. Of course, but that means the virus is still spreading even worse then he suspected.

Testing is excellent for trying to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, but that doesn't mean it's under control and leaves people free to coalesce in groups.

Chris Wallace brought up the new spread of the virus in Arkansas when kids were at a pool party, and Hutchison replied that it's a matter of self-discipline.

Obviously teenagers, kids, and yes, many adults have no self-discipline or are just refusing to adhere to safe distance restrictions because right-wing outlets and Trump tell them to.

Republican leaders are making clueless excuses in an effort to help Trump win reelection.

(h/t Nina Golgowski)