Todd Starnes interview with Governor Bill Lee over renewal of emergency powers.

Thank you to Todd Starnes for taking the Governor to task over the extension of emergency authority here in Tennessee and the ticker-tape parade being thrown across the country for nothing short of completely false statements being made by this administration.

In this interview, the Governor states that the remarks being made by Tennessee Stands are false. So, let's layout a few facts.

1. The Governor stated that COVID-19 no longer presents an emergency here in our state.

FACT: Yet, in a press conference, the Governor by his own admission renewed the state of emergency for federal dollars. In other words, your constitutionally secured liberty is for sale.

2. The Governor stated that he would NOT renew any public health orders.

FACT: By EO 80, the Governor renewed EO 77, a public health order giving (6) metro health departments emergency powers to continue issuing restrictions on businesses through May 31.

3. The Governor stated that businesses in Tennessee have faced no restrictions in Tennessee for the last 8 months.

FACT: Businesses in Knox county have faced restrictions until very recent changes to the authority of the Board of Health. Businesses in Davidson County are under restrictions until May 15th, and then still under mask mandates through at least June (says the Davidson Co Department of Health). Businesses in Shelby County are still under restrictions supposedly until May 31.

4. The Governor says that because of state statute, there is nothing that he can about the current restrictions of the Shelby County Health Department.

FACT: Metro Health Departments currently gain their authority to place greater restrictions on businesses from EO 77, not state statute. Had the Governor simply allowed EO 77 to fully expire, the Shelby County Health Department's emergency authority would have ceased tonight at 11:59pm.

FACT: Our Governor routinely says one thing but by his actions, does another.

The day that Gov. Bill Lee says that he supports something, and then fully backs actions that actually accomplish what he said he was going to do, we throw an official ticker-tape parade.