Wikimdia Commons / Gage Skidmore
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
After drawing national derision last month for telling Fox News that elderly people should be willing to die during the pandemic to save the economy, the former right-wing radio host is beating the same drum.
Once again, on Fox News. And, once again, to host Tucker Carlson.
During a Monday appearance on the network, Patrick defended his comments, saying the country's economic devastation during lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19 left him "vindicated."
"When you start shutting down society and people start losing their paychecks and businesses can't open and governments aren't getting revenues ... I'm sorry to say that I was right on this," said Patrick, a Republican.
As if that smirking bit of I-told-you-so-ism wasn't enough to win friends and influence people, Patrick doubled down on his sentiment that it's OK if people die, so long as we keep business and Wall Street humming along.
The national lockdown was a mistake, he argued, saying that leaders listened to the "wrong science" and “wrong numbers." As evidence, he pointed out that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had downwardly revised his estimated death toll and only 500 Texans have so far been killed by the disease.
"There are more important things than living, and that's saving this country for my children and my grandchildren and saving this country for all of us," said Patrick, 70.
"I don't want to die, nobody wants to die, but man, we have got to take some risk and get back in the game and get this country back up and running."
Now seems as good a time as any to remind readers that Patrick is up for reelection in 2022, and that in 2018 he won with just 51.3% of the vote despite vastly outspending his Democratic opponent.
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