The Daily Signal - 'It's About Controlling You': State AG Fights Biden's COVID Vaccine Mandates

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

President Joe Biden's sweeping COVID-19 vaccine mandates are facing a slew of lawsuits from states and private employers. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is leading the charge against three of those mandates, already securing one favorable decision while awaiting action on the other two. Landry joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss Biden's mandates and the legal challenges he's pursuing to halt their implementation. "The president is actually contradicting the whole reason that we're having these mandates," Landry says. "To me, that becomes prima facie evidence of exactly why or what this administration's up to. It's not about health care. It's not about fighting the Chinese virus. It's about controlling you." In addition to vaccine mandates, Landry also discusses: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland's recent memo targeting parents who speak at school board meetings; Louisiana's efforts to support law enforcement and counter the "defund the police" movement; JP Morgan Chase's discrimination against gun manufacturers and Second Amendment supporters; Biden's failure to halt an oil-and-gas lease sale in Louisiana, which could deliver $100 million to the state. Listen to the full interview below or read a lightly edited transcript at DailySignal.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, November 22nd. I'm Rob Blewey. And I'm Doug Blair. On today's show, Rob talks with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry on some of the big fights facing his state and the country, including the Biden administration's COVID vaccine mandate. We also read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about how the world's most premature baby beat 1% survival odds to break a Guinness World Record. But before we get to today's show, we want to tell you about the most popular resource on

the Heritage Foundation website, the Guide to the Constitution. More than 100 scholars have contributed to create a unique line-by-line analysis of our Constitution. The guide is intended to provide a brief and accurate explanation of each clause of the Constitution as envisioned by the framers and as applied in contemporary law. There has never been a more important time to have an understanding of our founding document. So if you want to learn more about the Constitution, go ahead and visit heritage.org slash Constitution or simply search for the heritage guide to the Constitution. Now stay tuned for today's show coming up next.

We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. He is leading the fight on a number of important issues and we're grateful to have him on the show today. Welcome back, sir. It's good to have you with us. Well, Rob, thank you for giving me some time today and sharing me with all you listeners. You bet. Well, I want to start with one of the big fights that really is of concern to a lot of Americans. and that's President Biden's onerous COVID vaccine mandate.

This requirement would make private employers with 100 or more employees require those workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine or submit to weekly testing. Now, you have fought this in your state, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, recently granted a request to block the vaccine mandate on private employers. And you and the other state attorney generals are making sure that this administration is held accountable. Tell our listeners why you believe this mandate is unlawful. Well, first of all, what I'd like to do in answering that question is really to try to help clear up the air, because there's so much confusion, so much anxiety, and some of the chaos is being created by the government. And I get these from people who call into our office each and every day.

So the first thing I would say, Rob, is that you should imagine three buckets, okay? And those three buckets represent three different mandates by the federal government. The first bucket, which everybody kind of goes to, is this OSHA bucket, okay? And let's not lose sight of the other two buckets. But the OSHA bucket is the bucket that was created when the president, in September, instructed OSHA to issue an emergency rule to have companies that have over 100 employees to mandate the shot, right? And so that's had a tremendous amount of people, both employees and employers, are very anxious and upset about, about trying to implement because it causes a lot of the supply chain disruptions that are going on today. In that particular bucket, that's the bucket under which we filed suit and we filed in the fit circuit, along with a number of the businesses and some other states.

and the Fifth Circuit granted and issued the stay that you spoke about. And then they did it in a very, they did it like in 24 hours. And then there was a whole bunch of rhetoric that came out of the White House and who showed about ignoring the courts. And then there was a lot of briefs that threw back and forth all last week. And so then the Fifth Circuit came back in a very, what I would term, smashing opinion, probably six or seven pages. It's a great read.

basically put the White House in checkmate and said, no, we're in Article 3. Court, this is the order we've issued, and OSHA cannot implement this rule right now. And then in the last day or so, OSHA finally came out and said, nope, we're suspending the rule. So if you fall into that bucket, right, because some people are in multiple buckets, that's important to recognize, then that has been stayed. The second bucket is the federal contractors or contract workers or people or universities who apply for federal grants and then pay people underneath those grants. Louisiana, along with other states, filed suit here in Louisiana on November the 4th on that case. That case is in front of a federal judge and we're asking him to enjoin that mandate as we speak. we haven't heard from the judge yet, but we feel confident that we'll hear from shortly.

The third bucket is the CMS bucket, right? That bucket covers health care workers, anyone who receives Medicaid or Medicare funding, including like my office, which has a Medicaid fraud unit. I mean, they want all my Medicaid detectives to take the shot, right? You know, then we're supposed to protect it against the Chinese virus. So anyhow, we filed suit. war on Monday, November, I think there was the 50th, against that rule. The judge, late yesterday evening, issued an expedited order to take up the TRO or the restraining order,

which would enjoin that mandate. That case, there's a bunch of other states that have filed. Similarly, a Missouri judge has the same case for the state of Missouri. So if you fall in one of those buckets, the good news is there's litigation against the government in all three buckets. Unfortunately, today I can only report that one of the buckets has been turned over, and that's the OSHA one. Well, thank you for walking us through all three of those buckets. It is truly frightening to think that the Biden administration is taking this authoritarian action from Washington and imposing this on the freedom of the American people.

The Fifth Circuit made this ruling. it had the initial ruling and then the three judge panel later ruled, but now a judicial panel has consolidated all of the challenges in the Sixth Circuit. So I'm wondering if you can explain to our listeners who might be confused about the status of this case, particularly at these compliance deadlines come up on December 4th and then January 4th. What happens from here? Well, look, the January 4th deadline, which is the OSHA deadline, is pretty much suspended. I mean, OSHA said it's suspended.

I think that deadline has been blown out the way. I don't think they could, even if the court agreed with OSHA, they'd go back to the January 4th deadline. What I would tell you is, and the reason, and you're right, there's a lot of confusion again. So here's what happened. When OSHA promulgates or drafts a rule under their emergency powers, the challenge to that rule is made at the appellate level and not at the district court level. And so the statute goes further and says that if multiple challenges are made against the new rule, and those challenges are in different circuits, then after a 10-day period from the filing of the first challenge, a lottery is conducted, and then based upon that lottery, that's the court that will hear the entire matter.

So they drew a lottery, and the Sixth Circuit got the case. Now, look, I think it's great. I mean, I'm partial to the Fifth because I'm in the Fifth, right? And, you know, I think we've got great judges. I mean, like, just super fantastic judges in the Fifth. But I think they're great judges in the Six. It's led by an outstanding chief, and so we're comfortable litigating it there. As you said, perhaps this January 4th deadline doesn't need to concern Americans as much.

But you spoke about the multiple challenges that you are. pursuing against the Biden administration and what they're trying to do. Can you speak to our listeners about the consequences if the administration is allowed to move forward? What is really at stake here for the American people? Well, you know, it's amazing to me. So let's just take the CMS bucket, this health care bucket. When this whole pandemic started, when the Chinese virus came over on our shores and infected Americans, right, it was all about we had to flatten the curve so that we created more health care capacity, right? All of the edicts and mandates and shutting down the businesses and keeping people in their houses, all of that was to ensure that when you went to the

hospital, there was adequate capacity in the hospital to take you, right? Well, this mandate with health care workers does the opposite, right? It frustrates that process. All it does is say that they predict 30 to 40 percent of the health care workers are going to get out of the system. Well, how does that help our capacity? So the president is actually contradicting the whole reason that we're having these mandates. And to me, that becomes prime official evidence of exactly why or what this administration's up to. It's not about health care. It's not about fighting the Chinese virus.

It's about controlling you. Let's shift to another topic. What do you make of the revelations that the Department of Justice was working with the FBI to target parents who were critical of their school boards? You know, when I first saw the headline, I thought it was coming out of the onion, right? Or one of those satire websites, because I was like, this is America. Like, you know, it was something that you would see from the KGB back in the Cold War days, right? I mean, and then what we've seen since then has been even more troubling in the fact that, We have now weaponized the Department of Justice against parents.

I mean, for for Pete's sakes, this is all about the kids. Our school boards are at the local level. Why? Because we've recognized in this country that when government is closest to the people, it governs best. And so the education of our kids is so important that we make that government close to them so that parents have an opportunity at a direct seat at the table to be able to elect their school board members. Why? Because they can hold them accountable a lot easier than they can hold Congress accountable. If we could hold Congress as accountable as school boards, we might fix the country, but we can't.

But again, to think that the Department of Justice has gone directly after these parents is completely troubling. How has Louisiana acted to protect the rights of parents to still, you know, be vocal critics of their schools and make sure that, as you said, they're held accountable? Well, we said the U.S. Attorney General, Mayor Garland, a pretty fierce letter in telling him that, you know, this is not his sandbox, and we better not catch him in it. And then, number two, the next thing that we did was basically put out guidance for parents. We ensured that they understood what the open meetings law says in the state of Louisiana, because we police that. We let the school board members know about the open meetings law again, and we wanted to make sure that everybody had an opportunity to be heard and to air. out their particular grievances, because, again, for Pete's sake, that's the way democracy's supposed to work. And it's worth noting that the Louisiana School Board's Association dropped out of the National School Boards Association,

which is the group that appears to have influenced the White House and Department of Justice to take this step in the first place. Correct. Let's shift topics. I want to ask you about an issue that I know is on the minds of a lot of Americans, particularly as we see crime increasing throughout our country. A number of Democrat-led cities across the United States have attempted to defund their police departments or actually have done it. And the dramatic rise in violent crimes that have resulted are perhaps not all that surprising given the action they've taken. Last year in Louisiana, the legislature tried to pass a bill that would prevent cities from defunding the police, but it did fail. What are the defund efforts occurring in Louisiana?

And if so, what are you trying to do to push back and defend our law enforcement? Well, look, I can tell you right now that we have, in our office, certainly stood behind our brave men and women in law enforcement 100%. I can't answer for what goes on at the Capitol in that legislature. We're supposed to have a majority of Republicans on both sides. Sometimes I don't know exactly what we have over there. I know we got a liberal governor who basically takes his orders from the Biden White House each and every day. But we work with our law enforcement officers, with our sheriffs, with our chiefs of police, to ensure that they have the resources necessary to combat the violent crime that's sweeping the nation.

In fact, when I get on the road, I try my best to visit with sheriffs. I was with one yesterday down in southeast Louisiana. I was in North Louisiana last week, visiting with a couple of other sheriffs as well. And so we do our best to make sure that every tool we have available here at the Department of Justice is utilized to ensure that departments aren't defunded and that people are protected. And I know it means so much to law enforcement to have that support and backing, and it's been encouraging of late more so than it was last year to have more and more Americans speak out in defense of our police. You have also helped lead the fight in Louisiana and across the nation, frankly, against banks like J.P. Morgan Chase, which are refusing service to gun manufacturers and possibly other Second Amendment supporters. What are you doing there in Louisiana to push back and hold these companies accountable? We led the charge a few years ago on this exact issue.

We were able to put in place a policy under which we would select banks that would represent the state of Louisiana. We caught J.P. Morgan. I caught J.P. Morgan a month ago, basically engaging in this type of practice. We let the treasurer know. He pulled the item off the agenda in October, and we gave the representation of the state of Louisiana on a particular transaction. We took it away from J.P. Morgan, and we gave it to Wells Fargo. simply because of the efforts that both myself, people like Representative Blake Mugges and others have done in order to push the treasurer into supporting the Second Amendment. That's great.

And it seems like it could be a model for other states to look to what you're doing there and maybe implement some of the same practices. Right. You know, I would again continue to encourage citizens out there to encourage either their treasurers or their legislatures. You know, the state of Texas passed a great bill, and I think it was Senate 19, where they just banned it,

outright policies from the state of Texas doing business with companies that restricted firearms, manufacturing, sales, or anything to do with the firearm industry. We passed a similar piece of legislation here in Louisiana that the governor veto, and it was unfortunate the legislature refused to override that veto. One of the first things it did when President Biden took office was to ban new oil and natural gas leasing on public land and water, and the administration was actually forced to auction more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for drilling. What was the administration forced to do,

and how was that going to benefit your state and other Americans? What was amazing to me is that the price of gas, the price of gasoline at the pump right now, has risen almost 50% since Joe Biden took office. And guess what? That increase is solely based upon his irresponsible policy. The inflation that Americans are seeing today

are based upon those kind of policies. And one of those policies that we took to court was the fact that he wanted to halt the leasing of all federal lands because a lot of our energy comes from federal land. And he wanted to halt all federal leasing so that we couldn't

produce energy from any of our federal properties. Of which, by the way, the federal government receives a tremendous amount of revenue. I think it's the second largest influx of cash into the federal treasury other than the income tax. He wanted to halt all that in an effort to basically starve out the industry. And we took into court.

We won. He was forced to do a lease sale. Now we've got to force him to do a five-year plan. I mean, again, everything that he does, he is doing to halt fossil fuel development in domestic energy here in this country. And it is affecting the poor in the middle class disproportionate. So this is coming from a man who claims to represent the little people into the poor. I'm telling you what.

I'm a little person. I got to pay at the pump. And it's uncautionable what I have to pay. You know, there is a new piece of legislation, as you know, making its way through Congress right now, which would give huge subsidies to the wealthiest of Americans to get electric vehicles. I mean, it's just remarkable that they are able to get through some of these pieces of legislations. But you, as a former member of Congress, know full well that this is what we're on. up against with some of these Democratic members? Oh, yeah.

This is the electric court that President Obama did during his term 2.0, right? We went from the golf courts to the actual cars now, 100%. Mr. Attorney General, thank you so much for the leadership that you're providing and the work you're doing in Louisiana. It's great to have you as a guest on the Daily Signal podcast and we'll be following your work closely. Thank you. Do you have an interest in public policy?

Do you want to hear lectures from some of the biggest names in a American politics, the Heritage Foundation hosts webinars called Heritage Events Live. These events are free and open to the public. To find the latest heritage events and to register, visit heritage.org slash events. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show. Doug, who's up first? In response to Donna Harrison's commentary piece, to protect women, trust the science on abortion,

Rene Wellahan writes, Thank you for publishing your insightful articles. In your recent article regarding the science of abortion, I learned about the health risks to women who have had second trimester abortions, and I had never heard that. I've heard about the emotional and mental harm from abortions, but not the actual physical complications such as cervical damage and increased potential for future preterm births.

And in response to Matt Schoenfeld's commentary, my son's English teacher showed a transgender activist video in class, Here's what I did next. We received this letter from David Peters. The printed letter from a concerned parent about the trans video and class assignments openly advocating for and pushing the trans agenda is the best articulated response and pushback that I have seen. If more parents were as concerned and took the time to review their children's curriculum and then follow through with meetings as this parent, it would be a great way to block and ultimately put a stop to any inappropriate indoctrination of our children and grandchildren, whatever the you. objectionable topic. Way to go, concerned Howard County parent. Lead the way. Show other parents how to protest civilly without violence, but in a balanced, articulate, respectful, and yet

forceful way. Your letter could be featured on next week's show, so send an email to letters atdailysignal.com. Virginia Allen here, I want to tell you about the most popular resource on the Heritage Foundation website, the guide to the Constitution. More than 100 scholars have contributed to create a unique line-by-line analysis of our Constitution. The guide is intended to provide a brief and accurate explanation of each clause of the Constitution as envisioned by the framers and as applied in contemporary law. There has never been a more important time to have an understanding of our founding document. So if you want to learn more about the Constitution, go ahead and visit heritage.org

slash Constitution or simply search for heritage guide to the Constitution. Doug, you have a good news story to share with us today. Over to you. Thanks, Rob. Initially, Alabama mom Michelle Butler's pregnancy seemed to be fine. Doctors assumed everything was normal with her twins and she would deliver after a full term. But on July 4th, 2020, Michelle was rushed to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital for emergency surgery. A mere 21 weeks into her pregnancy, Michelle was giving birth. Curtis Zakeith Means was born nearly 19 weeks early and weighed a little less than 15 ounces. Unfortunately, his twin sister did not survive birth. Things were tense for a while as doctors and nurses weren't sure that Curtis was going to make it. In an interview with Guinness World

Records, Michelle said, the medical staff told me that they don't normally keep babies at that age. It was very stressful. But thankfully, Curtis became stronger and stronger. every day, and he responded really well to the treatment his doctors provided him. Dr. Brian Sims, the neonatologist, responsible for Curtis's delivery and treatment, was stunned at how resilient Curtis was. In another interview with Guinness World Records, Sim said, I've been doing this almost 20 years, but I've never seen a baby this young be as strong as he was.

There was something special about Curtis. After 275 days, nearly nine months, in the neonatal intensive care unit, Curtis was finally able to go home with his mom. And on July 5th, 2021, Curtis, or Pouty, as his family likes to call him, did what many assumed impossible, and he celebrated his very first birthday. This meant he was officially the most premature baby in the world to survive. Well, I know here we at the Daily Signal are thrilled to hear about Curtis's miraculous story, and we wish him many more birthdays to come.

What an incredible story. Doug, as you know, we've had some colleagues who've had children that have spent time in the NICU and what a stressful and intense time that can be for new parents. And this is just a miracle. So we wish Curtis and his family all the best and the health in the future. Absolutely. Well, we're going to leave it there for today. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on the Rikishay Audio Network. All of our shows are available at daily signal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcasting app. And be sure to listen every weekday by Adiches.

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