South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem delivers a resounding MAGA speech at CPAC 2021.  Governor Noem highlights the economic value of retaining liberty amid the COVID pandemic: “COVID didn’t shut down the economy, government shut down the economy.”

“In South Dakota, I provided all of the information that we had to our people, and then I trusted them to make the best decisions for themselves [on how to prevent the spread of the virus] for their families and in turn their communities,” she said. 

“We never focused on case numbers. Instead, we kept our eye on hospital capacity. Dr. Fauci told me that I would have 10,000 COVID patients in the hospital on our worst day. On our worst day, we had a little over 600. I don’t know if you agree but, Fauci is wrong a lot,” Noem said.

Notably, Noem never shut down her state’s economic activity or locked down her citizens, but rather provided South Dakotans with as much information as was available about the pandemic so they could make their own decisions, much like the country of Sweden.

“The media did all of this while simultaneously praising governors who issued lockdowns, mandated masks, and shut down businesses—applauding them as having taken the ‘right’ steps to mitigate the spread of the virus,” she said.