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Welcome to the podcast.

Today, Glenn starts the show drunk.

We didn't think it was going to happen.

It's sad.

He's recovering, but he just couldn't help himself.

So a little coronavirus drunk news edition.

We talk about

the small business problem that we're having in this country right now, which is massive.

Pat Gray joins us.

We have the governor of South Dakota on.

They just launched the first clinical trial statewide of hydroxychloroquine.

And she talks about what it's like in a state that's, you know, not getting hit very hard with coronavirus, yet having to deal with a lot of the same issues from the government.

As well as Dr.

Kelly Ward, she's on to talk about the way the left is using coronavirus to push for nationalized health care.

There's a lot of that going on, plus

how annoying Zoom calls are, because that, I think, is most,

is the thing that's affecting most of us right at this moment.

You can check out the podcast, of course, every day here.

Why, if you subscribe, please rate and review the podcast as well.

And check out Stu Does America as well, my show.

You can subscribe, rate, and review.

It's great, whatever.

You know, do that there.

Also, I want to tell you about Glenn's special tonight.

It's called Arguing with Healthcare Socialists.

You want to make sure you check that out.

You can watch it on Pluto TV for free, YouTube for free,

as well as Blaze TV.

If you're a subscriber, well, you don't need to hear this, but if you're not, blazetv.com/slash Glenn, use the promo code Glenn and save 30 bucks.

You're listening to the best of the Glen Back program.

All right, let's do our coronavirus update.

The cases worldwide now over 2 million.

Really, only up 40,000, 50,000 from yesterday, which is great.

Total confirmed deaths worldwide, up only 7,000.

Total confirmed recovered, almost 500,000.

The U.S.

now has 614,000 confirmed cases and 26,000 deaths.

That is up from yesterday.

Quite a bit.

587 yesterday

and 23,644 deaths yesterday.

The U.S.

now leads the world in both total cases and deaths from COVID-19, but it is 15th in deaths per 1 million people, 19th in cases per 1 million people.

Officially, all 50 states now have at least one death attributed to COVID-19.

Just a note,

on the scale side, if you will, traffic-related fatalities in the U.S.

were down by 23%.

as opposed to the same month in 2019.

So we saved some lives by not going out and doing anything.

Are we at the peak?

We think it was the peak yesterday.

The death toll in the U.S.

increased after New York included at-home COVID-19 fatalities for the very first time.

They had 270 deaths yesterday that were attributed to the virus from people who died at home in New York City.

New York City's health department says the total death toll now is 10,000, including the 3,700 total deaths that were added on Tuesday.

That included the backlog of several thousand people who died at home and were not counted as COVID-19 deaths.

Health officials have cautioned the deaths are a lagging indicator.

They don't mean that the sweeping stay-at-home restrictions are a failure.

The peak in deaths across the U.S.

is expected this week, according to the CDC.

So,

the WHO, do we have the audio of Donald Trump yesterday in an announcement in the Rose Garden?

He said this.

I'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World

Health Organization's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.

Everybody knows what's going on there.

American taxpayers provide between $400 million and $500 million per year to the WHO.

In contrast, China contributes roughly $40 million a year and even less.

As the organization's leading sponsor, the United States has a duty to insist on full accountability.

One of the most dangerous and costly decisions from the WHO was its disastrous decision to oppose travel restrictions from China and other nations.

They were very much opposed to what we did.

Fortunately, Fortunately, I was not convinced and suspended travel from China.

All right.

So here's the real bell that rang yesterday.

It is

a memo from December 2019 from epidemiologists in Taiwan.

They issued an urgent memo to the WHO about numerous cases of atypical pneumonia in Wuhan, China.

And the memo suggests that there is is human-to-human transmission and urge the WHO to

prevent

further testing to find the pathogen.

The WHO ignored the warnings from Taiwan and continued to reiterate all of China's false talking points, that there was no evidence of human-human transmission, that it was no big deal.

And that went on until January 14th.

Remember, this is in December.

This is before anybody really even even knows about it.

Two days earlier, by January 12th, more than 700 people had been hospitalized.

102 had died in Wuhan.

They failed to mandate that Chinese officials share the strains that would have allowed all kinds of diagnostic tests.

Taiwan was way ahead of this.

Here's the problem.

Why didn't the WHO listen to the epidemiologists from Taiwan?

I'm not making this up because Taiwan doesn't exist.

Taiwan is just an arm of China, and so we don't accept any information from Taiwan.

We get all of our information about China from Jeda.

Here's the problem with the withholding of the funding.

Congress holds the purse strings.

Will Congress hold back that money and stop paying the WHO?

My guess, no.

So is social distancing actually happening?

A study of mobile phone data shows only 35% of Americans are following stay-at-home orders across the U.S.

I find this story absolutely infuriating.

A study including thousands of mobile phones tracked from all 50 states.

On average, they say Americans were still taking two non-work-related trips out by car per day.

Utah, Colorado, New Mexico were the worst offending states with over 2.5 non-working trips out of the house by car each day.

Stu,

you're a numbers guy.

Yes.

Any questions on this study at this point?

Because that doesn't seem right, does it?

35% of Americans are staying home.

Everybody else is violating this?

Right.

I totally question

the assumptions of the study, right?

Like, just because you're going out of your house a couple of times does not mean you're not doing the whole social distancing thing.

Right?

If you're going out, first of all,

we all have,

we can go to get groceries, we can go for a drive and not end up anywhere.

You can go out to get gas.

You can go out to do lots of things.

What do you mean, non-essential trips?

That's a bizarre way of looking at it.

Uh-huh.

So these trips include fast food restaurants, which you can go to a fast food restaurant and you can be completely safe.

That's part of it.

It includes hardware stores and home improvement stores.

And

that one's a little dicey because I think it is essential for our sanity to be able to go to the Home Depot and do some things around the house.

Otherwise, there's nothing else we can do.

So hardware stores, which is, they are essential.

They're on the essential

list.

And the other one is grocery stores.

Well, all of those are on the essential list.

Two of them are food.

What are you talking about?

A stupid study.

And not to mention, I hate the stuff that they, I mean, I get it.

We all know our data is out there, but the fact that these people are so easily able to put together these tracking studies of everywhere we've gone is

revealing.

That's what it should be.

I want a study on how fast these guys have found ways to track all of us.

And nobody seems to have a problem about it.

By the way, Texas was among among the most compliant states with just below two trips out per person per day so far in April.

I think this is garbage.

I'd like to know with the 2.5 non-work trips, I'd like to know if they went to hardware stores, grocery stores, or restaurants, I count that as incompliance.

So what's the real number?

Now, here's the latest study on COVID and how it's spread.

Air conditioning systems may help spread the virus.

My comment, I don't care.

If you think I'm going to turn off my air conditioning unit,

I'm not going to.

Take me to prison, burn me at the stake.

I'm not shutting off my air conditioning unit.

Period.

By the way, five new viruses have been found to live in bats.

My comment:

Can we stop experimenting with bats?

I'm just saying

might be a good idea.

And finally, the CDC's plan to reopen America.

And this one's better than the California list.

Any state reopening must meet four conditions.

The incident of infection is genuinely low.

Now, what does that What is genuinely low, Stu?

Is New York genuinely low?

No, I would say definitely New York is not

genuinely low.

And the problem here, of course, is testing is not

even.

Uh-huh.

Okay.

Like, for example,

we're doing far less tests than some other states here in Texas, even though we have a large population.

It's also not randomized.

So we're not just taking people off the street and finding out if they have COVID-19.

That way, you'd be able to tell how many people are actually sick and asymptomatic and contagious.

We're instead just testing people with symptoms.

But still, I mean, you can get something out of that.

I don't know what they have to have an actual metric, though.

They can't just say, eh, kind of low.

Genuinely low.

Genuinely low.

I'm not going to say that.

No.

You got to come up with some sort of metric.

No, that's right.

The next one is a well-functioning monitoring system capable of promptly detecting any increase in incidence of infection.

What the hell is that?

What does that mean?

A well-functioning monitoring system?

Excuse me?

Part of that is quick reporting, right?

Like on these cases, we've noticed one thing that is really frustrating is Sundays and Mondays tend to have really bad reporting because they're reporting the deaths from the previous day and those days are weekend days.

So like these deaths are, they're happening, but they're not getting reported for two and three days, which is why yesterday's number was the highest it was.

But the day before that was a really encouraging number, so it could be that

I keep going back to this thing with the thermometers where

they have these internet-connected thermometers.

Akinza is one of the brands, and they have a sort of a heat map that was able to detect a lot of these breakouts early because a lot of people were taking their temperature and they were seeing fevers.

Like, if we're going to spend another $2 trillion, let's say, on another package, maybe it would make sense to

optionally, and that's important, optionally provide these types of thermometers to people so they can take their temperature and we can have, again,

aggregated data, not specific to you, but aggregated data so we can see when there's a flare-up in a particular area and we should increase testing there.

That type of stuff makes sense.

It doesn't seem like anybody's talking about that.

But

what they're talking about, the way you do this, of course, is South Korea or Hong Kong or

those types of situations, which there's way too much monitoring there to fit into our Constitution.

So I don't know how you do this exactly while maintaining the rights that we are supposed to have in this country.

Well, you'll get your rights back as soon as you do these four things, and I'm only on thing number three.

Okay.

The public health system is reacting robustly to all cases of COVID-19 and has surge capacity to react to an increase in cases.

Okay.

We should have a lot of people.

And a health system.

At this point, I mean, this is the United States of America here.

A health system that has enough inpatient beds and staffing to rapidly scale up and deal with a surge in cases.

Well, two

out of the four seem not real vague and seem like we should be able to do it, but what is reacting robustly to all cases of COVID-19?

I have no idea.

This is the CDC's standard on being able to open the country back up and let you out of your house.

This is insane that we're even talking about this.

This is child's play compared to what California is asking for and how they're going to open up California again.

We are headed for an interesting few weeks, to say the least.

You're listening to the best of the Glenbeck program.

Welcome to the Glenbeck program.

Mr.

Pat Gray is joining joining us now from Pat Gray Unleash, the podcast that you can hear on most of this network.

And also, you can get him

at any time with his podcast.

Hello, Pat.

Hello, Glenn.

I'm so glad to, so glad to talk to you and see that

you're still around.

You're still kicking.

It's good news for

so many.

So many.

Yeah, yeah.

I thought maybe I'd like to show you the new Mao trophy that we're giving away.

It is a statue of Chairman Mao.

It's beautiful.

And

it's an honor just to be nominated to win the Mao.

But

we're going to award this maybe, maybe Friday, maybe next week.

We'll see.

But

in this Mao trophy, it has got to go to the right recipient.

And I would like people to start nominating who the biggest tyrant, I'm sorry, who the biggest Maoist is

in America right now.

And I mean, I think there's lots of people to choose from.

There is the governor of Michigan.

There is the

governor of Kentucky is great.

The sheriff

in Los Angeles is really quite good.

Even the governor of Virginia might be a good.

might be a good candidate for this.

You have a nomination you would like to for me it is it's got to be it's got to be Andy Bashir of Kentucky.

He's done such a great job in clamping down on people in his state,

which is mostly a majority Republican state.

And so it makes it even more profound what he has done there, the good work he has done, keeping people out of church, keeping people in their homes, and

not allowing anybody to do anything in the state of Kentucky.

I'm so glad that they got rid of Matt Bray.

Yeah, I think the ankle bracelets on people who refused to stay at home, I think that was a nice touch that really only, only Mao really would have tried to pull off in Kentucky.

I mean,

that's great.

Imagine in a state like Kentucky, that's the kind of stuff that's going on right now.

That is, it's stunning, really.

It's, you know, and fortunately, people are starting to push back a little bit.

People are getting a little bit nervous about this.

They're getting a little pissed off about this, and they're starting to stick up for their rights.

I love the people who are getting into their car and putting together protests.

Me too.

You know, they're all going to the, you know, the mayor's office

and they're all staying in their car.

They're just doing tea party rallies in their car, which I think is tremendous.

Tremendous.

By the way, if you're organizing one of those for the state, for your state or community, I'd love to hear from you.

I'd also like to hear your nominations for the biggest Maoist in the country

today.

I think

we have to stand up against this stuff.

We have to start pointing these people out because

this is insanity.

Did you sanity?

Did you hear the thing in Michigan where Gretchen Whitmer said,

if you have a vacation home, you know, and a lot of Michiganders do because they've got some great lakes to have cabins on and all that.

They can't even go to their own home.

Like if they have two homes, they can't go to the other one.

What?

Why?

Well, because you're spreading your potential virus around a different community then.

But you're in your home.

Right, but you've gone from one place to another and you've brought new germs with you, I guess.

In your car.

In the car and in the air.

In the car.

I don't fully understand.

I mean, I don't understand this.

I leave my home.

I get into my car.

I pull up to my driveway of my cabin on some lake in Michigan and might might be even make Lake Michigan.

And

I get out of my car and we go right into my other home.

How am I spreading anything?

Well, it is possible, Glenn, that you could go to one of the local businesses and purchase something, maybe some food and take it out and bring it back home.

And then you've spread your germs around the community, and we can't have that.

But I would be doing that.

I'd be doing that in my other community.

Do you think you live in America or something?

I mean, what do you mean?

I think you are to be able to do this stuff.

I know.

Have you ever heard the like of this?

Listen to this guy.

Right.

Right.

By the way, did you hear what she did with the DeVos family?

No.

You know, because Michigan is one of these that are having these, they want to start gathering in their cars and protest her.

And

she said, it's the DeVos family that is doing this.

They're funding all of this.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Well, the DeVos family is

the um the owner and the the the originator of Amway

and uh so

they checked you know did did the DeVos family are they starting this and they did write a pretty big check uh to help fund this thing uh it was all of $250

$250 that's gonna wow wow yeah she said it's their money that they're spreading around that is that's causing all of this trouble and and uh it was 250 dollars

Those damn DeVos people are just,

they're horrible, aren't they?

So the next day, she had to come out and make a statement.

She did not apologize to the DeVos family.

She just,

in her briefing, she said, and I just want to thank Amway.

They have really been helping with the PPEs and they've been helping with disinfectants and everything else.

And they've really played a real role, an important role in our state.

Oh, man.

Really?

I mean, she's out of control.

I got an email in from a police officer.

He said, Glenn, I'm a 34-year-old police officer in Iowa.

I've been listening to you since I was 16.

I want to thank you for being such a strong, clear voice of reason and principle for so many years.

Several years ago, I had a conversation with my sergeant's assistant chief and the chief about the constitutionality of some of the orders that were given by governors throughout the country.

I'm happy to say that some are very concerned about governmental overreach.

However, some were more concerned about the spread of the virus.

I've revisited these conversations several times with them as time has gone on, and more and more stories of people being arrested and fined for exercising their constitutional rights have come out.

I've made it known that I will not violate the Constitution, that I swore an oath to uphold and protect regardless of what our governor says.

I've not received any backlash yet, but I haven't been in a position yet where I had to defy orders, even while our mayor is asking the public to call police if they suspect anyone of violating the governor's orders.

I just want you to know that while there are many people who seem to be paving the road to hell with good intentions, there are many of us who take our oaths to the Constitution with grave seriousness.

I hope, God willing, that this passes soon and cooler heads will prevail.

Thanks again for the service you've done for the country, blah, blah, blah.

Thank you very much.

I find great hope in this.

You know, yesterday I watched

Mr.

Smith goes to Washington with the kids, and they were like, the ones that don't have color.

Why it's black and white?

I don't want your old show and brother.

And Cheyenne said afterwards, this is one of my favorite movies.

It's a really great story.

And if that isn't the story of our times, I mean, think of the guts that it took in 1939.

to make that movie where the movie is about graft in the Senate and passing these big, these huge bills just to save the farmers and the workers.

But what's tucked inside of the bills is toxic.

And Jimmy Stewart is sent to Washington and he doesn't know anything about it and he figures it out along the way and stops it.

Think of that in 1939, but think about that today.

That's exactly what's going on today.

And Thomas Massey is Mr.

Smith.

I think that's a good analogy.

He really is.

is.

And he's getting the same kind of flack, too, from both sides of the aisle.

And it's really a shame because he's such a good guy, a patriot, a true conservative, and he's getting hammered.

I mean, is there anybody who's other than us in this room that are siding with Thomas Massey right now?

I don't think so.

I think, yeah, I think

Shapiro is, isn't he?

Yeah, I think there are.

Maybe.

Maybe Shapiro.

But they're few and far between.

I think Mark Levin is as well.

I'm not sure.

I will say that I know we can fast forward a year or two, and there will be a lot of people who very much embrace the idea that the spending of $2.2 trillion was probably worth a vote.

You know,

it's a lot of people.

Go on the record for it.

You know, it's a wild theory that a couple trillion dollars, the biggest package we've ever put together in U.S.

history, maybe we should have had the representatives on the record as to where they felt on that.

I don't know.

That's pretty picky.

Pretty picky, if that's what you're saying.

It's true.

I have to tell you,

I think that there is, I think there's something bad brewing,

possibly.

You know, the stock market, everybody's talking about the stock market's coming back up.

Look, the stock market's still.

Of course, the stock market is doing well.

They just got $2 trillion from the Fed.

Of course, the stock market is doing well.

This idea about the stock market being our benchmark and nobody is talking about the small businessman in America is sickening.

I mean, I really think every time I see, did you guys see the story of

the Chiron and MSNBC from

Jim Kramer?

He was doing a deal where he said the stock market had its best day since 1939.

Well, of course it was.

Jim, this doesn't have anything to do with anything.

There are no metrics involved on anything anymore.

Say what you want.

The reason why the stock market is doing well is because they've already got their money and we all paid for it.

Every taxpayer paid $16,500.

That's the chain around our neck.

We each paid that.

And most taxpayers are not going to get the $1,200

as a free gift from the United States government.

So wait a minute, I paid $1,650 and you're giving me $1,200 back.

I don't think that sounds like a good deal because I'm not helping saving the businesses in my neighborhood.

They're all standing in line and everybody's saying, well, no, you don't have

the right parameters.

You haven't been in business long enough.

You know, you don't have this.

You don't have this.

or we're already out of money.

Oh, okay.

Well, that sounds like they're really bailing out Main Street.

I think there's trouble coming.

Real trouble.

It's hard for me to believe, too, that they, look, they approved $350 billion for the small business loan plan, the PPP.

And

it's already going to be empty.

The only reason it's not empty yet is because they've had so many delays, but it's like they all know it's going over.

They've already asked for another $250 billion,

which

they have not approved.

And now they're not going to be in session until at least

May 8th is the earliest they're going to have a chance to vote on this with the current schedule.

All of these small businesses, all of these small businesses.

They're all going out of businesses.

Oh, they're all going out of business.

And the only business that will be left are the big businesses in America.

And that's not who we are.

We are not just Procter and Gamble and Amazon.

We are the Amazon that was at the beginning.

We're the Microsoft with Bill Gates in his garage.

That's who we are.

We're the ones where a guy has an idea and he starts to build it.

If you get rid of all of the entrepreneurs, if you get rid of all of these people who,

you get rid of all the people who are struggling but making it,

what do you have left?

I don't want to.

I'm not interested in saving GE and Procter and Gamble and Amazon.com.

They got enough.

Oh, and by the way, did you also see that the airlines got the bailout?

But Donald Trump insisted that they not only

pay it back, which I'm fine with, I'm great with that, but he also insisted that we get a piece of it, that the United States government becomes a co-owner in these airlines.

Excuse me?

No, thank you.

I don't think the United States government should have anything to do with any business whatsoever, period.

This is the best of the Glenn Beck program, and don't forget, rate us on iTunes.

Our next guest grew up on a farm and a ranch in Hamlin County, South Dakota.

From the time she could walk, she worked beside her dad on the ranch and worked with horses and cattle, and maybe that's what gave her a little bit of extra common sense.

She's now serving as South Dakota's 33rd governor, and she joins us now.

Hello, governor.

How are you?

Hi, Glenn.

I'm doing good.

It's great to have you on.

I want to go over what you announced on Monday

and what you're doing and why this sets you guys apart from everybody else.

With hydroxychloroquine.

Yeah, we did.

We announced the first statewide, state-backed clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine.

We really desired to go on offense against this virus.

So we partnered with our health care systems.

Leading the clinical trial will be Sanford Health.

But we also have two other systems within the state of South Dakota that are participating as well to make sure that we're getting a wide swath of individuals participating in this trial.

So it will be the first ever statewide one and one that a state is helping to fund and facilitate that will encompass virtually 80 to 90 percent of our doctors in the state and up to a hundred thousand people throughout the process so we're focused on making sure that we're not just dealing with taking care of our people but also putting the research in to make sure we have a long-term solution to help fight this virus and what made you decide to do this

I mean, if you look at the press, everyone is downplaying hydroxychloroquine.

Well, we have a healthcare system, Sanford, that's world renowned for their research abilities, and they've been working in several different areas.

To have that kind of capacity in our state is a real gift to us.

And I was watching what was happening across the country and everybody reacting to the virus and not being proactive to really make sure we were getting in front of it, that we could give a therapeutic to folks so that they didn't necessarily have to hide from the virus.

They could get out there and fight it off and make sure that they could get back to their daily lives as well.

So, for me, it's part of the solution.

You know, we're doing some

recommendations to folks to follow CDC guidance, and we're also making sure that we're using technology to do contact tracing.

But then, having the ability to have this drug trial in our state for such a wide percentage of our population allows us to really go on offense and go after this and make sure we have an option for those individuals who do get sick.

When I heard about this, that you were going to do this last weekend, I knew you were going to be dragged through the mud by the press.

Washington Post didn't pull any punches on that.

It gave the expected response.

They said that you were the one who said there's not going to be a statewide order to stay home.

It's the individuals, not the government should decide.

And now you've got a me processing plant with 400 people that are sick.

Do you want to respond to that at all?

Well, you know, that article is completely inaccurate.

And it doesn't surprise me because I've seen it a lot, not just in national press, but even here locally with details being left out of articles.

But, you know, the pork processing plant that we do have today that's a hotspot, that we have an outbreak going on there, is a critical infrastructure business.

Regardless on if I had chosen to put a shelter-in-place order across the state of South Dakota, that plant plant would have been up and operating because it's such an important part of our food supply.

And frankly, having it running is a national security issue.

So that would have not impacted that issue, but the Post decided to not use the facts and run with an agenda that I think is unfortunate for the public.

I think it's a grave disservice to our public when they don't tell all the facts because they're misleading them and creating this fear culture at a very important time to discredit people that are scientists, our doctors, our researchers, our elected officials during a period of time when we need to rely on the fact that they have information and have access to information.

To do that at an important time like this, when literally it's the difference between life and death, I think is a shame.

Now you have, because there are those cases for the meat processing plant, but outside of that,

how many people are sick in your state?

We have less than a thousand positive COVID-19 cases in the state of South Dakota.

About 300 of them are recovered.

But the vast majority of the cases are tied to this meat processing plant and in that county that's affected.

So we have over 500 cases that are tied directly to that incident there.

So we are also coming up with more positive cases because we're aggressively testing in that area.

You know, we put all of our resources there to be proactively testing people, isolating them, doing the contact tracing to tamp it down.

So the rest of our state is doing very, very well, and we'll get this one under control and make sure that we're slowing down the spread.

But I think what I've constantly had to remind the public is the science of this virus tells us we can't stop it.

So we have to use the facts that we have in front of us just to slow it down so that we can take care of people in our health care systems.

So that's been my constant message to the people of South Dakota and that all the control in the world is in their hands, that they have a personal responsibility to make good decisions to take care of themselves and their families.

And I will do all that I can to partner with them, but ultimately that responsibility does lie with them.

So

before we change subjects, I want to stay on the meat processing plant one more time because I want to get ahead of something that I think could be damaging from the other side, the conspiracy theory side.

This is a meat processing plant that had been sold to China.

And I know that there have been stories that, you know, people have been saying, oh, it's Chinese meat.

It's not Chinese meat.

It's all American meat.

It's just owned by China.

But have you found patient zero yet?

Was there anyone in the factory that had traveled to China or somebody from China that traveled to the factory or not?

Do you know?

We do know who patient zero is because we obviously have identified every single person and have been working with them in the state of South Dakota that did test positive we do not have any ties

to China from this outbreak at this plant and I think that you know this is a this is a plant that originally there was a couple of positive cases but a lot of the spread that we're seeing is happening outside the plant.

The plant is on pause right now.

We've seen a growth in cases, but a lot of the folks who work here to deliver our nation's food supply, you know, they live in close quarters.

They've got a lot of family members and neighbors in housing developments that are, they're sometimes two to three generations very closely living together.

So a lot of that spread is happening at home.

And this plant in particular has up to, I think, 70 different languages spoken at it.

There's 3,700 employees there.

So, you know, there's, it's a unique situation that I think people have been blaming the plant and when a lot of the spread is happening outside of the walls of the plant.

And that's why we have a pause going on to put up mitigation measures inside the plant and then also do an education process with a lot of the folks that work there.

I have a guest on who is a guy who watches the cattle auctions and

he's really big in the cattle industry and people would know him.

The average media person would not.

But he just issued a report recently that said that we have plenty of cattle.

There's lots of cattle coming up ready for auction, but

there's no slaughterhouses.

There are no processing plants to get this meat from farm to table.

How concerned are you about the food supply when it comes to meat?

Well, a small disruption in the system

has huge effects across our food supply chain.

And that's one of the reasons that this plant is so important.

This is a pork processing plant, but it's the same in the cattle industry.

It's the largest pork plant in the country, is it not?

It is.

It's very large, and it feeds other plants that refine the products even more that end up on your grocery store shelves.

So we have 550 producers, you know, and a lot of them South Dakota producers that take their hogs there.

And then that food ends up, you know, right here on American shelves to

feed folks each and every day.

And, you know, the virus does not travel through food products.

So that is one thing that I think we have to really be aggressive in telling folks as they get concerned about the food that would be coming through this plant.

And that just absolutely

is not even a factor.

The food is wonderful and it will be safe for people to eat.

But, you know, I think in the cattle market, too, we see a lot of manipulation.

There's some investigations that need to happen with our packing industry and control.

And as this gets streamlined and as it becomes more and more efficient, it also allows for a few players to manipulate the markets and the supply chain.

And that's why I've said for years, Glenn, and I haven't known you for years, but I have said for years that it's important we keep family farms because it's important we grow our own food in this country.

We never want another country to control our food supply because then they control us.

And if we have one or two people controlling the whole supply chain, we're in the exact same situation.

So

this diversity, having 550 different producers that feed into this one plant

is important because it's diversity and

it's making sure that we do have a national security issue taken care of because we don't have one person controlling our entire food supply.

I think the America First, or as the hippies would say, think globally, act locally, is beginning to ring true to more and more Americans right now.

It is.

I think there's a lot of things that are ringing true to Americans today.

It's about the importance of this country, what makes us special, the importance of the Constitution, what powers it gives to the people and to the states and to the federal government.

And I've decided that every opportunity I have, I'm going to use it to educate folks really on why

the United States of America is the best country in the world and why it deserves to be preserved.

And in times of crisis is when you see people

overstep and grab power.

And we're seeing that in so many places of the country.

And I took an oath.

to uphold the Constitution of the United States when I served in Congress, and I took an oath to uphold the Constitution here in the state of South Dakota.

And I'm constantly guided and using that as my foundation in every decision that I make, and then talking about it to people about why it's important.

I think a lot of people think in a time of crisis is when you can wave that aside and take any action you think is necessary.

I think that's when our Constitution and foundations become even more important because it helps you make wise decisions based on facts and based on science and not be manipulated emotionally into making poor decisions that aren't for the the benefit of the people.

Aaron Ross Powell, you know, it's amazing to me.

A, you're exactly right

on,

you know, when the Constitution matters is when it's popular to do the other thing.

It was also amazing to me that people

have

flocked to the government taking more and more power.

And that you have been such an outlier and been hammered by the national press

because you gave, I think,

you've given some of the best statements of anyone in this crisis talking about the rights of the people and it's up to the people to take care of themselves.

Has it been shocking to you to be on the receiving end of such backlash just for standing up for the American principle?

No, I would say it hasn't been.

I mean, I think I came from this wanting to be,

I wanted to be a farmer and rancher my whole life.

My whole life kind of got turned upside down when my dad was killed in an accident.

But, you know, I served in the state legislature.

I was in leadership here.

I went to Congress for eight years.

I got a good education on the divisiveness of politics and the national media.

I would say that

that I have to keep my focus on I do my job and I take my job very seriously.

and I also know that when I campaign for a role I tell people who I am and what my

what kind of person I am my values and my beliefs and show them and talk to them about how I will use those to make decisions that are best for them and I also will will be accountable to explaining that to them so while we've done a great job here in South Dakota taking care of folks and doing all that we can to get ahead of this virus and be proactive, I think it's also important to remind people

about the rights that they have individually as well too.

So many times

I see

people wanting somebody else to make decisions for them when in reality

they need to recognize the value and the special thing we have in this country is we get to make these decisions for ourselves.

I have the

stations.

I know I'm running really late.

Let me just ask one more quick question of the governor, and that is, when are we going to see any results from the testing that you're doing now with hydroxychloroquine?

Well, we have patients on hydroxy today.

I asked the White House and the administration if they would help us by supplying 1.2 million doses of hydroxy to participate in this trial.

There'll be two different branches of the trial.

One that will be for COVID-19 positive patients.

The other branch will be for those that have been exposed and also for health care workers and individuals that are high risk.

Again, these trials, we have enough doses to treat up to 100,000 people in the state of South Dakota and having all three of our systems on board makes it extremely comprehensive.

So they are on it.

It is starting.

It is all voluntary and people are excited about having an option that they can go to with their doctors that not only will help them feel better and save their, possibly save their families' lives, but also lead to a long-term solution to fight off this virus and potentially more in the future.

South Dakotans have always stepped up and been willing to contribute in ways above and beyond what I think other folks across the country have.

I always say we punch above our weight, and I think that

we are definitely doing that, and people are excited to be a part of the solution.

Really glad to see you, Governor.

Thank you so much.

We've been wanting to talk to you for a long time.

You have a bunch of fans at the Blaze and on the Glen Beck program and all of the shows here.

Keep up the good work and we'll keep you in our prayers.

Thank you so much.

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