Gov. Noem Discusses South Dakota with Greg Kelly on Newsmax

We go now to South Dakota in the middle of the country. We have Governor Christy Noem standing by. Governor Noem, you did not shut down your state. You did not shut down businesses. You did not shut down churches. The mainstream media said you were inviting a crisis. That crisis did not happen. COVID-19 well under control. Congratulations, by the way. You got a lot of heat for it. How do you feel right now? Well, we feel good. We've got really positive things going on in the state of South Dakota, and I think it's largely because the people of this state took personal responsibility for dealing with the virus. They made decisions to help their families, protect the vulnerable population, run their businesses in creative and innovative ways, and it really is helping us make sure that we're working through this virus while still protecting our economy and putting food on the table for people. We have the numbers, what you went through there. Roughly about 900,000 people in South Dakota, correct? Mm-hmm, yep, a little bit less than that, yeah. All right, we're going through the, you had a total of 5,500 cases, 68 deaths, 4,400 recovered. And again, you did not lock down, but you didn't do this recklessly. I mean, this was not just something, you paid attention to the CDC, you followed their recommendations, but you were also looking beyond America. Sweden played a big role in some of your decisions, didn't it? No, what we really did is we looked at information of what was happening with COVID-19 in other countries. We also looked at the research and the studies and what was happening in other states in the United States, but then we looked specifically at South Dakota, our demographics, what our challenges would be, our healthcare facilities to make sure that we had the capacity to take care of folks. And then I stood up and had an honest conversation with the people of South Dakota. I told them what we were facing, that we needed to slow down the spread of the virus and I needed them to take action, that I wasn't going to mandate any closure of businesses, I wasn't going to issue a shelter in place. I was gonna give them the opportunity to protect their families and to make decisions and to make sure we got through this together. Overwhelmingly, it worked. We have had less than 10% of the capacity we built into our system utilized in our hospitals. We have less than 1,000 active cases in South Dakota right now. People have done a phenomenal job and I think they're extremely grateful for the fact that I took seriously my constitutional duties, that I wanted to protect their freedoms and liberties while I made decisions and that I trusted them. And now you're kind of rubbing it in with the rest of the country. I've seen some of the footage. You're inviting people from New York, who by the way, a lot of them are looking for an exit strategy and they're looking for another place to move. Why not South Dakota? Hold on a second, Governor. I'm gonna show everybody a small clip. Take a look. Nationals who will be working from home permanently, if you value our way of life, where people love freedom, smaller communities and lots of wide open spaces, I want you to think about doing your work from a new home in South Dakota. Okay, you made your case. What's the reaction so far? Well, when I campaigned for governor, I talked about the fact that South Dakota was open for business and I meant it. And I think we proved through the last several months how serious we are about that. We love our state. We love our people. It's fantastic. And I think people should consider moving here, establishing their businesses and raising their children in our state. This is one of the states that's the perfect example of what makes America special. And these people here love their country. They love being a community and it overwhelmingly is working. We have people visiting our state at record numbers the recent weeks. They're coming here because they've heard about South Dakota. They wanna see what it's like. We get reports every day of people asking if there's opportunities to move their businesses here, their families here. So I think a lot of folks recognize that the future may look a little bit different in other states and that potentially they want to come to a state like South Dakota, where they can still value a lot of the liberties that they've cherished their entire lives. Governor, I am showing everybody how the capital of your state is spelled. They can see it right there. Okay, all right. So they all see how it's spelled, but how do you say it? You say pier, not pier, it's pier. And it's on the Missouri River. It's absolutely beautiful. And we have Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Our second largest industry in our state is tourism. I think that should be a testimony to how beautiful our state is and how much people love coming to see us. I would love to see that. We have the lowest. The lowest what? Well, we have the lowest tax burden in the country, in our state, the lowest regulatory burden, and the best people. So I think that folks, if they are considering changing where they live or where they have their business established because of the response they've seen from their local leaders I would love to have you come and visit South Dakota. Okay, me too. It's the one state that I've never been to North Dakota or South Dakota. I've been everywhere in Alaska and Idaho and a few others. Maybe I should stop. Yeah, well, come to South Dakota. We'll take good care of you. Very good, very good. And all due respect to Pierre Cardin. That's the other Pierre we were talking about. It's pier, not Pierre. Governor Kristi Noem, thank you so much. Okay, to be continued. Thank you, have a great night. All right, you too.