Exclusive: Gov. Noem Slams Democrat Opponent's Support for Some Vaccine Mandates

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) on Thursday slammed her gubernatorial Democrat opponent’s support for some vaccine mandates and mask-wearing rules, telling Breitbart News that Rep. Jamie Smith (D) has consistently dismissed personal responsibility and rights of individuals to make health care choices.

“Jamie has long supported mandating things down to people that should be their personal responsibility to make choices on,” Noem said of Smith’s bureaucratic approach to government. “He’s got a very different view of government than I do.”

“He’s marched to BLM [Black Lives Matter], he supports more taxes, more spending,” she continued. “I would say we are very, very far apart when it comes to policies and approach in the role of government should have in people’s lives.”

This was the scene in committee last week. Not a mask in sight. We are here to do the work of the people, for the people, and we must remain healthy to continue that work. I am asking South Dakotans to respect their neighbors and please wear a mask! pic.twitter.com/IUqQv5RbNz

— Jamie Smith for SD Governor (@RepJamieSmith) February 10, 2021

Noem’s comments come as Smith told Breitbart News he favors vaccine mandates for healthcare workers and masking rules “when appropriate” in accordance with President Biden’s so-called health experts.

“There are people in certain professions – that I believe in the health systems – have asked me to support mandates in health systems, for example. They’ve reached out to me and said, ‘Please, because of what we do, we need to make sure all of our people are vaccinated,’” Smith said, describing why he supports jab mandates.

“The way we can be the safest is to be vaccinated, boosted, and wear a mask when appropriate,” Smith continued before abdicating public policy decisions with complicated social and economic tradeoffs.

“I will follow the guidance at the time when I’m governor,” he said. “I’ll follow what health professionals say is the best thing for us to do.”

Breitbart News questioned Smith if he thought leadership was abdicating complicated policy decisions to one select group of experts. Smith responded by praising Noem’s leadership on vaccine policy.

“As of late, the governor has come out with a commercial to the people talking a bit about vaccination and boosters and I appreciate that,” the Democrat stated about Noem’s public health announcement. “I think it should have been done months ago, perhaps a year ago. But I do appreciate this commercial.”

Smith’s thoughts on medical freedom are seemingly in line with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has allegedly twice perjured himself in congressional hearings and vigorously defended himself against accusations that he funded the Chinese Communist Party’s Wuhan Institute of Virology’s gain-of-function research.

Fauci has advocated for vaccine mandates, even for those traveling by airplane and children attending school. He told the New York Times:

Ultimately, all pandemics burn themselves out. So you have a choice. Do you want it to burn itself out and kill a lot more people and make a lot more people sick? Or do you want to do something about it to prevent further deaths and further illness?

Biden’s health expert has also poo-pooed an individual’s freedom and personal responsibility to make individual health choices for themselves.

“Put aside all of these issues of concern about liberties and personal liberties and realize we have a common enemy and that common enemy is the virus,” Fauci said about mandating vaccinations.

Meanwhile, South Dakota only has 344 individuals hospitalized with coronavirus, according to the state’s health website as of Thursday. South Dakota boasts over 895,000 residents.

Noem enjoys majority support in the state with 53 percent of respondents approving of her performance, an October poll revealed. Just 40.9 percent strongly or somewhat disapproved of her performance.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø

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