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U.S. Rep. Brooks: ‘I strongly encourage’ Gov. Ivey to respect liberty, freedom, wishes of Alabamians regarding COVID-19 shutdown

Despite a public outcry claiming Gov. Kay Ivey’s rollback of coronavirus restrictions on the state level last week did not go far enough, the Ivey administration has not budged on further rollbacks, which comes to the chagrin of U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville).

On Tuesday, Brooks reiterated his call for Ivey to completely halt the shutdown, with what he deemed to be a “few minor exceptions.”

“I have in the past, I will in the future continue to urge Governor Ivey to totally end her shutdown with a few minor exceptions,” he said during an interview on Huntsville WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show.” “One exception by way of example would be if you have COVID-19, you have to be quarantined. OK, I get that. The general public gets that. That person who has COVID-19 is a danger to whoever they may encounter. With small exceptions, we need to restore liberty and freedom, and trust the citizens of Alabama to make the best decisions as they weigh the economic risks versus the health care risks associated with this pandemic.”

“I strongly encourage Governor Ivey to respect liberty, to respect freedom, to respect the wishes of the people of the state of Alabama to have more control over their own lives as they seek to best balance the pros and cons of COVID-19 versus their personal finances and need to work in order to support their family,” Brooks continued. “I trust the citizens to do that, but so far, it does not seem that Montgomery is willing to place that kind of faith in citizens who paradoxically elected the folks who are now in Montgomery taking that liberty and freedom away.”

“We’ll see how it plays out,” he added. “That’s my encouragement. Hopefully, Governor Ivey will come around. With what she did last week, she did restore more liberty and freedom. But she ought to restore all of it, not bits and pieces.”

Brooks reminded listeners the coronavirus shutdown would result in a loss of $1 billion to state coffers, as Ivey pointed out during an appearance on Fox News last week.

“That’s going to have a cascading effect on the services the state of Alabama can afford to give to the citizenry starting with law enforcement and our penitentiaries, and the safety that gives citizens from crime,” he said.

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly and host of Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.

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