Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds Tries To Scrub Her Lockdown Record

Authored by Kathleen Sheridan via The Brownstone Institute,

It seems that everyone is running from the lockdowns they once supported, and that includes former presidents and governors, and probably mayors too. Apologies would be better so we can at least have an honest accounting rather than an attempt to rewrite the history that everyone knows. 

Jack Phillips of Epoch Times alerts readers in his article of August 31, 2023, of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’ recent statement on the subject of lockdowns. The Iowa State Government’s website says the following:

“Since news broke of COVID-19 restrictions being reinstated at some colleges and businesses across the U.S., concerned Iowans have been calling my office asking whether the same could happen here. My answer—not on my watch. In Iowa, government respects the people it serves and fights to protect their rights. I rejected the mandates and lockdowns of 2020, and my position has not changed.” 

Governor Reynolds “rejected” the mandates and lockdowns of 2020?

She did?

Her position has remained the same? It has?

Could it be the Governor has forgotten her “orders?” On March 17, 2020, Governor Reynolds issued her first “Public Health Disaster Emergency.” Following her long list of “whereas’s,” she ordered the following:

• Restaurants and bars: Closed to the “general public”

• Fitness centers/health clubs, spas, aquatic centers: Closed

• Theaters/performance centers: Closed

• Casinos/gaming facilities: Closed

• Churches: Closed

• Social, community, spiritual, religious, recreational, leisure, and sporting gatherings and events of more than 10 people, including but not limited to parades, festivals, conventions, and fundraisers: Prohibited. 

• Senior citizen and adult daycare centers: Closed

• Salons/barber shops: Closed

A few weeks later on April 6, 2020, she doubled down. In this second proclamation, the Governor extended the timeline and expanded what she now says she “rejected.” To add insult, she also formally called on law enforcement to “assist in the enforcement of these ‘mitigation efforts’.”

To wit: 

“To encourage further social distancing and mitigation efforts, the proclamation orders additional closures effective at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 7th until Thursday, April 30th”: (Highlight and underline added)

• Malls 

• Tobacco or vaping stores

• Toy, gaming, music, instrument, movie, or adult entertainment stores

• Social and fraternal clubs, including those at golf courses

• Bingo halls, bowling alleys, pool halls, arcades, and amusement parks

• Museums, libraries, aquariums, and zoos

• Race tracks and speedway.

• Roller or ice skating rinks and skate parks

• Outdoor or indoor playgrounds or children’s play centers

• Campgrounds

Should we afford the Governor the benefit of the doubt? That she “rejected” “mandates and lockdowns” all the way through Mar 16, 2020? Then changed her mind? Hence, rejecting them before implementing them? 

Should we resist the impulse to accrue to the Governor a little bit of gaslighting in her August 30, 2023 statement? Will she insist that businesses she ordered closed and the behaviors she prohibited* – to be enforced by law enforcement – weren’t “mandated” “lockdowns?” That they were instead “mitigation efforts” as spelled out in her “orders?” That all this merely carried the weight of suggestion? This…so that she can now say that she “rejected” mandates and lockdowns? 

At best – at best – this PR stunt strains credulity. Especially when simple searches can recall those pesky things called facts. On the record.

At worst? At worst, why, some might suggest it describes a woman whose actual status rhymes with “fire.” 

Maybe the Governor needs a chance to explain herself, including her definition of “rejected.” I can just hear her now: “I did reject the lockdowns before I didn’t.” I daresay that would make for some really great reading. 

In the meantime, some of us who rejected all the unlawful nonsense, who were never fooled by any of these fools, who never cooperated and gave up all – remain unfooled – even when the likes of a Kim Reynolds attempts to rewrite history. 

I have attached both of Governor Reynolds’ “mitigation effort” orders.