J.D. Vance: 'There is no rational public health justification for telling people they can't buy tomato seeds'

close

Video

J.D. Vance on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's restrictive stay-at-home orders

J.D. Vance, author of 'Hillbilly Elegy,' joins Tucker Carlson on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

J.D. Vance, the author of "Hillbilly Elegy," joined "Tucker Carlson Tonight" to talk about some governors abusing their authority, in particular Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has shut down elective surgeries but is allowing abortions to be performed.

"It's pretty sad that things that are politically favored, like abortion, like the abortion lobby, is deemed essential care. But things like heart surgeries, like joint replacements are not deemed essential surgeries," Vance said Friday. "Obviously, that means a lot of people, frankly, are suffering and we know they're suffering in a context where most hospitals outside of New York City are not overrun. And so you just have a lot of needless human suffering that's really, really terrible."

MICHIGAN GOV. WHITMER SUED BY SOME RESIDENTS OVER CORONAVIRUS ORDERS

Earlier this week, protesters gathered at the state capitol to voice this displeasure with what they described as an "excessive" quarantine.

Vance believes Whitmer's policies are more about politics than public health.

"And so if you look at the list of things you're not allowed to do in Michigan right now, like buy tomato seeds at Home Depot, like go fishing with a motorboat, and you compare that to the things that you're allowed to do in Michigan, like get an abortion," Vance said. "If I'm a person living in Michigan right now, I wonder if those restrictions are about public health or if they're about who has a political line to the governor. And I think unfortunately for some of these issues when we know the answer."

The author ripped Whitmer's governing, saying she's not helping the situation.

"The end of the day, there is no rational public health justification for telling people they can't buy tomato seeds on the one hand, but they can't buy marijuana on the other where they can get an abortion," Vance said. "And I think that our leaders need to think about not just whether these these orders make moral sense. That's, of course, a very important question. But do, do they do the governance in a way that makes it easier for people to actually follow the social distancing guidelines?"

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"And if they don't, then what is the purpose of this whole thing?" Vance asked. "If we're actually making it harder for good, honest citizens to follow the rules that we're trying to get them to follow?"