Since no anti-mandate MAGA governor will ever be indicted for manslaughter or criminal negligence, the only realistic alternative is for such a person to debase himself on national TV. So it went yesterday for Tate Reeves.

You’ve probably never heard of the guy – Reeves is less infamous than Greg Abbott or Ron “DeathSantis” DeSantis – but the governor of Mississippi warrants time in the limelight because his state currently has the highest Covid death rate in the nation. Indeed, it’s second worst in the world, trailing only Peru. But he’s mostly cool with that because, as he said recently, Mississippi’s a God-fearing place where Christians are “a little less scared” of Covid because they believe in eternal life. So why should he encumber them with mask and vaccination mandates?

When Reeves surfaced on CNN to defend his home state, he tried six different ways to say he’s doing a great job, despite the fact that one of every 320 Mississippians alive before the pandemic is dead now (worst per capita in America), including a growing number of pregnant women; and despite his insistence back in July that federal mandates have “nothing to do with rational science” and that “in Mississippi, we believe in freedom.”

Changing the Subject. When host Jack Tapper asked Reeves why he opposes President Biden’s new federal mandates for “the Covid vaccine that you yourself have gotten,” Reeves replied: “The question here is not what we do in Mississippi. It’s what this president is trying to impose upon the American worker…The president does not have the authority to do this. He knows he doesn’t have the authority to do this.”

Changing the subject didn’t help. First of all, two Supreme Court rulings have upheld government vaccinations during health emergencies. Second, a federal workplace law says that government can impose emergency orders to protect workers from “substances or agents determined to be toxic or physically harmful, or from new hazards.” Third, Biden’s vaccination mandate applies only to large employers; roughly half of Mississippi workplaces are small businesses that are exempt from the mandate.

The Next Thing You Know...Slippery-slope sophistry is a tired old trick: “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?…If we give unilateral authority by one individual to do anything he wants to do, whether it’s a jab in the arm or anything else, then this country is in deep, deep trouble.” But Biden isn’t seeking “unilateral authority to do anything he wants to do.” He is, however, trying to save lives (one of his constitutional duties) after more than 660,000 have been lost.

Grab the Crumb. Politicians who are under fire love to seize on random wording within a question in order to avoid answering the question. Tapper asked: “Let’s talk about what you and the legislature in Mississippi is doing” to mitigate the worst death rate in America, because “with all due respect, governor, your way is failing. Are you going to try to change anything?”

Reeves’ response: “Yes, well, obviously, the – in Mississippi our legislature is a part-time legislature. I sometimes, I wonder if in America if our Congress was part-time, we wouldn’t be in a better position.”

Tapper: “Better position than what?”

Reeves didn’t answer.

The Phony Premise. At another point, Reeves said: “The president wants you to believe that this is – that the Delta variant is only affecting Republicans in red states.” Biden has never said that. But it’s an incontrovertible fact that, as of last Friday, 14 of the 15 states with the highest death rates were red states in the ’20 presidential election. And nine of the 10 with the lowest vaccination rates were red. (Mississippi is 5th lowest.)

But What About…This is also known as the “don’t look at me, look at somebody else” trick. At yet another point, Reeves said: “If you want to talk about cases right now, talk about Kentucky or West Virginia or what’s happening in North Carolina…In these other states you refuse to talk about, perhaps because they have Democrat governors, you don’t want to talk about them.”

But he was being asked to talk about his state, which is faring worse than the other states he cited. And of those 15 aforementioned states with the highest death rates, 12 have Republican governors. (Including Georgia’s Brian Kemp who, last week, declared: “Just like the AIDS vaccine, mandating it didn’t work.” There has never been an AIDS vaccine mandate; in fact, has never been an AIDS vaccine.)

Jerk the Knee. When all else fails, simply invoke one’s ideological mantra: “The best way that Americans – the best way – the best thing for Americans to do to protect themselves from the virus – and again, we believe in personal responsibility. Individual Americans and individual Mississippians.” How’s that working out. In Mississippi, “personal respinsibility” translates into 58 percent unvaccinated. “Personal responsibility” is code for “Ain’t nobody gonna tell us what to do even if the ICUs are full up and we’re almost as bad as Peru and our medical folks are overwhelmed. Because freedom.”

Oh, I almost forgot. Reeves had one parting shot: “The president’s not focused on saving lives.”

I have no words for that one.