South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem spoke about how the United States – and by extension, many states themselves – responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, proudly boasting that her state was not as extreme as others.
In a discussion with the Cato Institute on Thursday, Noem said that what happened in many parts of the country was a “power grab” not unlike the control the Chinese government has over its citizens.
“Really what happened is the Chinese Communist Party and their grab of control, their communist control… we brought that into this country and states instituted that same government exercise of power grab that frankly in this country should be alarming to us,” Noem said. “We saw that in states that was much like what China was implementing. It was a communist method for grabbing control into the government.”
The South Dakota Republican lamented how much of their freedom people in the U.S. lost during the height of the pandemic, and how easily it happened. She said she was “shocked” when government said people could not have large gatherings, “so people gave up their freedom of assembly.”
“They just rolled over and gave it up,” she said. Likewise, she recalled, government stripped people of their freedom of religion by saying they could not go to church.
South Dakota imposed a state of emergency for COVID-19, but this did not include statewide lockdowns or mask mandates. Early on, there was a requirement for businesses not to allow more than 10 people inside if there was no space for social distancing. The state’s Department of Health also recommended cloth face coverings at one point, but it was not required.
“People have to know that there’s a state like South Dakota, where it was different,” Noem said. “People have to hear the story that there was a place that did it different, and we’re thriving because of that.”
The state’s emergency order was extended multiple times, ultimately coming to an end on June 30, 2021.