President Joe Biden is doing all he can to push his vaccine mandates, and name, shame, and bully any governor or person who does not fall in line.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has already told him to go pound sand. It’s Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves’ turn.

Jake Tapper, one of the Left’s favorite media darlings, invited Reeves to CNN’s State of the Union to talk about Reeves joining the lawsuit against Biden’s workplace vaccine mandates. Tapper alleges that Mississippi has one of the highest death rates, and that one “out of every 320 people have died of coronavirus.”

Tapper begins with invoking “the children,” and childhood vaccinations for schools to frame his questioning, when the vaccine mandate Reeves is fighting involves adults in the workplace.

That is Tapper’s first bit of gaslighting, and the segment is overrun with so much more.

“Well, the Mississippi legislature has enacted laws, Jake — and, again, thanks for having me on today.

“The Mississippi legislature has enacted laws for many years regarding vaccines of many types. It is unique to kids and their ability to go to our public schools. It’s not vaccines mandated in the workplace.

“But the question here is not about what we do in Mississippi. It’s what this president is trying to impose upon the American worker. The president very much wants you and everyone else to believe that this is a fight between politicians.

“The reality is, this is an attack by the president on hardworking Americans and hardworking Mississippians, who he wants to choose between getting a jab in their arm and their ability to feed their families. And I just believe that’s a false choice.”

Not only a false choice, a demand that no president has the authority to make. Reeves hones in on this point.

“The president does not have the authority to do this. He knows he doesn’t have the authority to do this, in my opinion, but he wants to change the political narrative away from Afghanistan and away from the other issues that are driving his poll numbers into the ground and focus on anything, particularly a political fight, other than those issues.”

Tapper counters with the language given for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule. He calls it a “law,” which it is not. Agency rulings and actual laws are two different things, and Tapper knows this.

“That law says that the government can impose an emergency order if it determines — quote — ‘that employees are exposed to great danger from exposure to substances or agents determined to be toxic or physically harmful or from new hazards, and that such emergency standard is necessary to protect employees from such danger.’

“I mean, if there ever were a reason to use this law, wouldn’t it be during a pandemic, with almost 2,000 Americans dying every day?”

Biden pulled it out of his hind quarters in order to justify forcing Americans who have not taken the jab to get it. He has tasked OSHA—a government agency—not Congress, with coming up with the language on the ruling. This is legislation by fiat, and is not how our republican system of government is supposed to work. This is what Reeves, and at least 12 other governors, are countering.

“Well, again, Jake, over 9,000 Mississippians have passed away with COVID, and every single one of them breaks my heart. It is — it is a very difficult situation that we, as Mississippians, and we, as Americans, find ourselves in.

“But we also have to understand that, as we look forward, if this president has the ability to mandate vaccines, what powers do we not grant this president? What does he not have the ability to do?

“And for my friends on the left, I just want to point something out. This should scare as you well. This should scare Democrats just as much as it scares Republicans, because the fact is, if we give unilateral authority by one individual to do anything that he wants to do, whether it’s a jab in the arm or anything else, then this country is in deep, deep trouble.”

The country is already in deep, deep trouble, with hostages still in Afghanistan, and over 13,000 illegal immigrants flooding our Southern Border in Del Rio, TX—many who are probably COVID positive. Biden is off vacationing on the beach, radio silent on letting these people enter the country. Yet, he wants to threaten Americans who have legitimate questions and legitimate reasons for not taking a vaccine with losing their livelihoods.

That’s dictator territory. Reeves continues:

“And that’s not something that I’m willing to stand by and allow him to do. Obviously, we have made it very clear that we are prepared to sue once we actually see the rule.

“That’s another point that I think your viewers need to know, Jake, is that we haven’t seen the actual rule itself. All we’ve had is a press conference. It was 10 days ago or so when this initially came out.”

Which goes to my point above. According our Constitution, which turned 234 years old this week, presidents do not create laws and rules: Congress does. Creating a new mandate from whole cloth that you plan to blanket our entire federalist system of governance with is not how it’s supposed to work.

Americans are getting the Civics lessons that have been so clearly lacking in our school system, because teachers unions think critical race theory is what children need to be learning, instead of the mechanics of how our government is actually designed.

Reeves concludes:

“And so let’s see what the rule actually says, or let’s see if it’s like the eviction order that the president signed on to, knowing that he was going to get thrown out by the Supreme Court. And, of course, he certainly did.”

Tapper looks visibly irritated at this point, because this is not the answer he wants to hear. So, he goes in for what he probably thinks is his kill shot:

“Let’s talk about what you and the legislature in Mississippi is doing, because I’m sure I don’t need to tell you Mississippi this week became the state with the worst number of coronavirus deaths per capita.

“In fact, if Mississippi were its own country, you would be second in the world, only to Peru, in terms of deaths per capita. That’s a horrible, horrible, heartbreaking statistic.

“So, with all due respect, Governor, your way is failing. Are you going to try to change anything to change this horrible statistic from what you’re doing already?

Here, Tapper is dead wrong. According to World-o-Meters, in total deaths, Mississippi would be fourth (9,214), behind Bosnia and Herzegovina (10,203), and Hungary (30,123). But let’s skip world metrics and go to United States metrics alone. By the same, New Jersey is a close sixth (27,182) (with only North Macedonia (6,437) in between). So, is New Jersey, with its mandates only rivaled by New York, failing too, Tapper? Why isn’t NJ governor Phil Murphy on your show defending his death rate?

Oh, that’s right, he’s not threatening to sue over Biden’s workplace vaccine mandate.

Tapper also makes the comparison to Peru’s death numbers (198,976). Peru has travel restrictions and requires double-face masks to enter many of their establishments. So, without realizing it, Tapper diminishes the Fauci & Co. mitigation measures argument, showing they are not as effective as they would like everyone to believe.

"If Mississippi were its own country, you would be second in the world only to Peru in terms of deaths per capita… With all due respect, governor, your way is failing." CNN's @jaketapper presses Mississippi GOP Gov. Tate Reeves on the state's Covid-19 death rate. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/P93FGrhroi

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 19, 2021

But Tapper continues to reinforce his false narrative:

“Your state is second worst — second worst in the world. I mean, I — how can you say that?”

Reeves calmly explains his position, which in essence is, the virus is going to virus. He doesn’t say this flippantly, but uses the data from Israel, the poster child nation of the vaccinated, and Great Britain, who has endured the Delta variant without putting draconian vaccine mandates in place.

“Well, Jake, let’s talk about where we are and why we are there.

“In large part, just like the summer of 2020, it was the Sunbelt states that saw the initial surge from the Delta variant. It started — the first state that I saw seeing upticks was Missouri, and then it was Arkansas, and then it was Louisiana. And now it’s Mississippi.

“Our surge went from less than 100 cases per day in Mississippi to 3,600, much like what happened in the country of Israel, much what — like what happened in the country of Great Britain and in England. We saw a very quick spike, and now we’re seeing a very could — a very, very quick decline in the total number of cases. We spiked at about 3,600. We’re now half of that in our state.”

“As you know. Unfortunately, fatalities is a lagging indicator when it comes to the virus. It is a lagging indicator.

“And so timing has as much to do with where — with that statistic that you used as anything else, as we see in 2021 what occurred in 2020 as the Delta variant moves around the country. and it’s going to happen. The president wants you to believe that this is — the Delta variant is only affecting Republicans in red states.”

Therein lies the rub. Biden wants to play political games with lives. Where have we seen this before?

Tapper continues to accuse Gov. Reeves of not doing anything and not caring that his people are dying. Tapper reinforces his lie about the second per capita death toll, and then intones,

“But what President Biden is trying to do is save lives. Now, you can think that policy or it’s unconstitutional, and that’s fine. We can have that discussion. We already have. But he’s trying to save lives.”

Sure, Jake. The same way he’s saving lives in Afghanistan and on the border.