PA Sheriff Slams Governor, Calls Pandemic a Turning Point That Made Him a Republican
For one Pennsylvania sheriff, the pandemic was the turning point.
Southeast of Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania, Fayette County is the kind of place, and Sheriff James Custer is the kind of person, that respected journalists like New York Post writer Salena Zito turned to in order to get a gauge of the mood of the country in the aftermath of the November election.
Custer announced in September that he was switching parties from Democrat to Republican, and in an interview with “Fox & Friends” Monday morning, he had no problem explaining why.
Check it out here:
“It probably started back when the pandemic started and the mandates coming down by the Democratic governors, of which we have one here in Pennsylvania,” Custer told co-host Ainsley Earhardt.
And boy, does Pennsylvania have a Democratic governor.
Second-term Gov. Tom Wolfe has not gotten nearly the attention that governors in neighboring states have, such as Andrew Cuomo in New York and Phil Murphy in New Jersey, but his approach to the coronavirus crisis has been just as heavy-handed in many ways.
That hasn’t made him popular in the state – especially in places like Fayette County.
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And on Thursday, according to WPVI-TV, Wolfe announced new restrictions that went into effect Saturday morning shutting down many businesses, such as indoor restaurants and indoor gyms, banning gatherings of more than 10 indoors and more than 50 outdoors (religious services excluded) and restricting retailers to 50 percent capacity.
Wolfe’s new strictures came only days after the governor himself tested positive for the coronavirus — possibly infected by his own security team, according to the York Daily Record.
The circumstances didn’t help his case in some quarters – especially the “heads I win, tails you lose” nature of his announcement about being infected.
“As this virus rages, my positive test is a reminder that no one is immune from COVID,” Wolfe wrote.
“Following all precautions as I have done is not a guarantee, but it is what we know to be vital to stopping the spread of the disease.”
Quite a few Twitter users took issue with the arguably circular logic.
One of two things should be said about this… your “precautions” do not work or you did not follow them. Which is it? Every time the numbers “surge” u claim it’s because bars and restaurants are not following the mask mandate. Can you clarify this for me?
— Xylina Beck (@BeckXylina) December 9, 2020
Soooo you’re saying the “precautions” didn’t work? Shocker. Better keep pushing the draconian dictatorship
— Capitalism Cures (@hardunkichud_d) December 10, 2020
Did you wear your mask? Did you social distance? If that all works how could this have happened?
— six percent (@PR0UD_P8RI0T) December 9, 2020
Wolfe’s new restrictions weren’t specifically brought up during the Fox interview, but Custer’s attitude was clear.
“As the sheriff, it is my duty, as a constitutional sheriff, to protect and serve, uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States,” he said, noting that he considered the pandemic mandates unconstitutional.
Of course, there was more to the troubled year of 2020 than the coronavirus pandemic that would make a sane person switch parties to get out of the Democratic lunatic asylum – especially a career law enforcement officer.
The latest leftist fetish of “defund the police,” the transparently opportunistic response to the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody in May – an effort by radicals like the Black Lives Matter movement to use terroristic violence to make political hay out of a man’s death – drove Custer’s decision too.
“Starting back from the George Floyd incident and all the civil unrest and the calls for ‘abolish the police,’ ‘defund the police.’ That was part of factoring into my decision that, ‘Hey, this is not what I signed up for,’” Custer said.
He described himself as “one of 40 individual sheriffs here in the state of Pennsylvania to endorse President Trump as our law-and-order president.”
With the Electoral College meeting on Monday, the country is inching closer every day to the prospect of a Joe Biden presidency beginning on Jan. 20.
That would leave Americans dealing with the reality of an economy that was rejuvenated by Trump, then damaged by the coronavirus and very possibly in line to be devastated by Democrats’ overreaching response to it in the event of a Biden presidency.
Law enforcement officers and officials like Custer and his colleagues throughout the country are also facing the possibility that a political party that despises “law and order” could soon be in charge of law and order nationwide.
Liberals might be cackling now, but men like Custer should have them worried. Decisions like his are going to have ramifications for years when it comes to where, exactly, Democrats will be able to turn for support in the future.
After all, there are only so many well-off, white suburban women who can be race-guilted into political idiocy. And if Democratic policies have their usual effect, there are going to be fewer and fewer of them in the years to come — and they’re not going to be looking so fondly at the party that’s dragged down the economy again.
Places like Fayette County, from one end of the country to the other, won’t be looking at the party fondly either.
The pandemic was a turning point for James Custer, and the rest of the country, too.
Democrats could well be on the way to finding out there is no turning back.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
