Mississippi\u2019s Republican Governor Tate Reeves, who has the highest firearm mortality rate in the entire country, this week launched his re-election campaign with a video depicting him as Clint Eastwood shooting people of color.
Although the video (below) was released Tuesday, few seemed to notice until a Talking Points Memo article was published Friday afternoon.
\u201cReeves\u2019 face is superimposed on Eastwood\u2019s in clips from the classic Dollars trilogy movies. He\u2019s seen cosplaying the white anti-hero, the Man with No Name, shooting at Mexican bandits with a Colt revolver and puffing on a cigarillo,\u201d TPM\u2019s Emine Y\u00fccel writes.
In addition to the inherent racism and violence in the video, there is no policy discussed, and not even any bragging about Reeves\u2019 record.
There may be a reason for that.
Governor Reeves almost from the start of the coronavirus pandemic \u2013 due to policy choices he made \u2013 has one of the absolute worst records on COVID in the country.
Mississippi ranks 34th in population, yet was 18th in total cases per capita. It gets worse from there: Mississippi ranks third in deaths per capita.
Just one year into the pandemic, in March of 2021, Tate declared, \u201cThe governor\u2019s office is getting out of the business of telling people what they can and cannot do,\u201d as he lifted mask mandates and COVID-19 restrictions.
Under Tate\u2019s leadership, Mississippi has suffered a huge health crisis. In September of 2020, the Mississippi Clarion Ledger revealed a \u201cnew report ranks Mississippi\u2019s overall health care system dead last. \u2018It\u2019s an embarrassment,\u2019 said one health expert.\u201d
\u201cEven before the pandemic, Mississippi\u2019s health care system and outcomes were deteriorating under several metrics, according to a new report by The Commonwealth Fund\u201d the Clarion Ledger added. \u201cThe health research organization\u2019s \u2018Scorecard on State Health System Performance\u2019 ranked Mississippi No. 51 \u2014 below every other state and Washington, D.C. \u2014 where it has stood for several years. The researchers relied on data from before COVID-19.\u201d
One year later, Politico scored each state on their response to COVID. With a score of 34 out of 100, Mississippi tied for second-worst.
And on overall health, Mississippi is also doing poorly. Forbes in January reported on the \u201cTop 5 Least Healthy States.\u201d Mississippi came in at number two, the second-worst.
In other areas, like education, Governor Reeves\u2019 record is also bad. Mississippi, according to World Population Review, ranks 43 out of 50.
Meanwhile, back to Governor Reeves and his cosplaying video.
On Tuesday, as TPM also reported, Governor Reeves told supporters, \u201cthis is a different governor\u2019s campaign than we have ever seen before in our state because we are not up against a local-yokel Mississippi Democrat, we are up against a national liberal machine.\u201d
\u201cThey are extreme. They are radical and vicious,\u201d he said of Democrats and the \u201cnational liberal machine.\u201d
\u201cThey believe welfare is success. They believe that taxes are good and businesses are bad. They think boys can be girls, that babies have no life, and that our state and our nation are racist.\u201d
Response to Gov. Reeves\u2019 video has been highly critical.
Former Nettleton, Mississippi mayor Brandon Presley, a Democrat running to unseat Reeves, tweeted: \u201cMississippi has real problems and Tate Reeves releases this foolishness as his first video of campaign. I guess we will have to wait and see if any welfare dollars were diverted to his buddies for the production of this silliness.\u201d
Presley was referring to what CBS News is calling \u201cthe largest corruption case in Mississippi state history.\u201d which appears to involve Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, who has not been criminally charged.
\u201cGov. Tate Reeves\u2019 first 2023 re-election video features him as an AI cowboy killing a bunch of folks with a gun. Totally normal campaign launch in the state with the highest gun death rate,\u201d noted Mississippi Free Press news editor Ashton Pittman.
\u201cThis is what Republican messaging has been reduced to, at least in Mississippi: \u2018Watch me, a sitting governor, CGI cosplay as Clint Eastwood and shoot Mexicans,’\u201d wroteHarvard\u2019s Neiman Lab\u2019s Joshua Benton.
Democratic consultant Brannon Miller appeared to agree with Benton.
\u201cI know that Tate Reeves himself didn\u2019t make this, but it\u2019s such a perfect window into the psyche of everyone over in his shop,\u201d Miller wrote. \u201cThere\u2019s no message, no policy, no positive good. Just a man, role playing as a tougher man, who is himself role playing an actually tough man.\u201d
The Lincoln Project\u2019s Stuart Stevens, a top political strategist, announced, \u201cThe only conclusion to come to is that @tatereeves campaign hates him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n