Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, considered by some to be a “Republican in Name Only,” said he supports employer vaccine mandates even while other Republican states ban them as an infringement on personal liberty.
Referring to the other GOP states that have banned vaccine mandates, such as Florida and Texas, Hutchinson called the move mistake.
“The states are sometimes coming in and saying, ‘Employers should not have the ability to impose a vaccine requirement on their workers,’” he told NBC over the weekend.
“To me, that’s the wrong direction as well,” he continued. “It’s not practical in terms of creating that debate, but it’s not principled either.”
Employers should have the “right to provide a healthy workplace,” Hutchinson said.
“You would have just as many workers say, ‘I don’t want to work there because it’s not a healthy workplace, because not everybody’s going to be vaccinated,’” he added. “The employers are in a tough position. They would have the prerogative to make those decisions and I support that.”
Hutchinson also recently said he regrets signing into law a bill that bans mask mandates in Arkansas.
“I signed it for those reasons that our cases were at a low point,” he said in August.
“Everything has changed now—and yes, in hindsight, I wish that had not become law, but it is the law, and the only chance we have is either to amend it or for the courts to say that it has an unconstitutional foundation.”
Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) says he regrets signing law banning local mask mandates, as COVID cases quickly rise in his state.
“In hindsight, I wish that had not become law,” said Hutchinson, who has asked lawmakers to allow school districts to adopt mask mandates. pic.twitter.com/sj1Q8ukLCA
— The Recount (@therecount) August 4, 2021
