Screenshot / YouTube
In March, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick came under fire for saying “lots of grandparents” across the U.S. would sacrifice themselves in the pandemic for the sake of the economy.
This week, the “pro-life” advocate used a few other choice words while calling for the reopening of Texas even as coronavirus rages on. He said, there are “more important things than living.”
Flickr/Gage Skidmore
Patrick voiced his opinion on Monday evening while appearing on Fox News’s Tucker Carlson Tonight. He said he was “vindicated” after being criticized for saying seniors would sacrifice themselves for the American economy. He added,
“There are more important things than living, and that’s saving this country for my children and grandchildren and saving this country for all of us. I don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die, but man we gotta take some risks and get back in the game and get this country back up and running.”
On the show, the governor also claimed that policymakers had “the wrong numbers and the wrong science” as the total number of lives claimed by COVID-19 was below what some models initially projected.
Flickr / Lorie Shaull
Patrick opposes abortion and has worked to defund procedure providers like Planned Parenthood. So when the “pro-life” politician said there were things more important than life, it was only fair to point it out.
Lt. Gov. @DanPatrick : “There are more important things in life than living.”
Also Patrick (on abortion): “It is a life and we are born in the image of God…always protect life in every situation. “ https://t.co/bKnXjXEkou
— Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) April 22, 2020
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Some of them believe Patrick, who is also pro-guns, has killed the pro-life movement altogether.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick on reopening the economy: "There are more important things than living."@DanPatrick, you are a fraud. You have allowed gun violence to run rampant and now you say this? You just killed the Pro Life movement. https://t.co/SrjJwZIhHy
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) April 21, 2020
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One Twitter user even pointed out that he might care about his own life, but he just didn’t care about other people’s lives.
Dear Dan Patrick: I think you misspelled "There are more important things than *somebody else* living." I think if it came right down to your own life or death you might see the importance.
— Catherine Ryan Hyde (@cryanhyde) April 21, 2020
AP Photo / Matt Rourke
One Twitter user challenged him to be an essential worker if he didn’t mind putting his own life at risk.
.@DanPatrick if you feel this way, go volunteer with first responders or bag groceries alongside the people you want to put at risk!
"There are more important things than living, and that's saving this country for my children and my grandchildren.”https://t.co/23qkh0FGoj— Amy Siskind 🏳️🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) April 21, 2020
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A doctor even likened the Lt. governor to Marie Antoinette.
Marie Antoinette to starving peasants in France:
“Let them eat cake.”
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to the citizens of Texas in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic:
“There are more important things than living.”
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) April 21, 2020
Screenshot / ABC News
Other fellow Americans appealed to his logic.
The reason projected deaths were low — something Patrick believes were “wrong numbers” — is only because people decided to follow stay-at-home orders.
Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick—who calls himself “pro life,”—insists, “There are more important things than living.”😳
Why won’t these people understand that the reason projected deaths are decreasing is *Because* people are following stay-at-home orders.😑
pic.twitter.com/itEMdA7FUe— Qasim Rashid for Congress (@QasimRashid) April 21, 2020
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A retired colonel took to Twitter to point out that there wouldn’t be an economy to save if there were no people left to work.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick seems to believe that the lives of Texas workers are worth nothing compared to the economy. Let me be clear, there will be no economy to save without the very lives he is willing to sacrifice. https://t.co/IgL9sxFJWW
— Kim Olson Col. USAF ret. (@KimOlsonTx) April 21, 2020
As of April 21, there were more than 20,196 reported cases of COVID-19 and 517 deaths in Texas.
