When it looked as though Mississippi might be starting to successfully control the spread of coronavirus in mid-May, three Starkville doctors sat down with a local sports reporter to discuss the upcoming football season.

The three men each said they’d feel safe attending a Mississippi State game — with normal attendance in a stadium that holds 60,000 people — come fall. At that point, Mississippi had recorded more than 10,000 COVID-19 cases and nearly 500 people had died.

Dr. Cameron Huxford argued that COVID-19 “wasn’t as bad as we thought”; Dr. Jim Brown called health department orders aimed at limiting the spread “an infringement on civil liberty”; and Dr. Will Carter quipped, “You can’t isolate yourselves forever.”

By July, as deaths more than doubled, cases tripled and hospitals became overwhelmed, Huxford, Brown, Carter and 15 other local male physicians doubled down, advocating in a joint letter against a local mask requirement the Starkville Board of Alderman ultimately approved.

The position of the 18 physicians, led by Dr. Huxford, who presented the arguments at the July 7 board meeting, are not shared by the nation’s primary health associations or government health agencies.

“I believe that fear, rather than hope, is the foundation of many of the decisions being made concerning this virus,” Huxford, medical director for Oktibbeha County Hospital’s intensive care unit, said in a direct message to Mississippi Today, citing his religious convictions. He also said he did not wear a mask publicly, outside of the hospital or clinic, until the city mandated it, and that he would likely not wear a mask if he traveled to a municipality that did not require it.

Huxford — who has been vocal on social media, sharing opinions and articles that serve to downplay the severity of the pandemic, to the applause of some of his followers — declined an interview with Mississippi Today. Carter and Brown did not respond. The doctors do not specialize in epidemiology or infectious disease.

As responses to the pandemic have polarized communities across the nation, the demonstration in Starkville showed that not even medical professionals are immune to the discord.

UMMC Communications

State health officer Thomas Dobbs at a press conference at UMMC.

State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said rhetoric surrounding the virus — which, “like all things social media … finds fertile ground in groups that distrust government on a good day” — has caused Mississippians to ignore public health orders.

“It’s insanely difficult to control a pandemic when people A) think it’s not real, B) find every reason to undermine the reality of it to justify not following the rules,” Dobbs said in a recorded meeting on July 10.

The doctors clarified in their letter that they are not “against masks,” but they offered several medical reasons — such as mask usage increasing face-touching or causing health issues — against a mask mandate.

Rogelio V. Solis, AP

Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill

“That didn’t track for me,” said Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill. “That’s more of a political statement than it is a medical statement.”

Research increasingly supports the notion that wearing masks — especially universally among communities — helps prevent people who may not know they are COVID-19 positive from spreading the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reiterated Tuesday. Studies also show that states with mask mandates had a greater decline in COVID-19 growth rates after imposing the orders than states without mandates.

“I know for many of you this has become a political issue, but I assure you it is not,” Starkville physician Dr. Emily Landrum said at the meeting, advocating for the mask mandate, the Starkville Daily News reported. “We are almost six months into a pandemic of a novel, or new virus. There are many things about COVID-19 that we still don’t know and it will take time to learn, but there are many things that we have learned. We know that measures of masking, social distancing and hand washing are highly important to preventing unnecessary and burdensome spread of COVID-19.”

Dr. Jennifer Bryan, who chairs the Mississippi State Medical Association board of trustees, told Mississippi Today any opinions against the use of masks “are not in line with the general consensus of the medical community in the state.”

David Buys, Mississippi State University Extension health specialist, said in an email that doctors have a right like anyone else to share political opinions publicly, “but they should not have, nor should they in the future, use their credentials as health care providers and misrepresent their expertise to try to gain a policy outcome as they did.”

On Tuesday, the Mississippi State Medical Association, of which the Starkville doctors are members, released a statement calling for a statewide mask mandate.

“We strongly believe that without a statewide mask mandate our state’s healthcare system cannot sustain the trajectory of this outbreak, which could ultimately result in the loss of the lives of many Mississippians,” it read.

Strain on the health care system due the record high number of serious cases — nearly 1,100 people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 on Tuesday — is already occurring.

In the Jackson area, there is just one open intensive care unit bed at tier one and two hospitals and just seven total open, State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs told reporters on Tuesday. The previous week, he told doctors during a recorded meeting that he knew of four people who had died after they were unable to get into crowded hospitals.

“They died in transit or they were in the wrong hospital and couldn’t get to where they needed to and they died. And that’s just the four I know of,” Dobbs said.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Gov. Tate Reeves and Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs speak to the media about the coronavirus during a press conference at the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, March 26, 2020.

Last week, Gov. Tate Reeves imposed a mandatory mask order on 13 counties where cases are surging (to which one former lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate responded via Facebook: “I would like to see you come up here and try and make me wear a mask!”). Oktibbeha County, where Starkville is located, was not on the list.

The order took effect Monday. Reeves has repeatedly urged all Mississippians to wear a mask “as often as humanly possible.” But when asked Tuesday if he would consider imposing a similar order on the entire state as requested by the medical association, Gov. Reeves compared the tasks to a dentist trying to get compliance from their child patients.

“Some kids, if you tell them they have to brush their teeth, they just won’t do it,” he said. “It’s just the reality of where we find ourselves.”

He also Tweeted that attempting to shame people for not wearing masks “only hardens their resistance.”

Neighboring Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey implemented a statewide mask mandate Wednesday. Later in the evening, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued an order overriding local mask mandates in his state.

Starkville officials had required residents to wear masks early on in the pandemic, but Spruill said the city lost support for the measure in the community, in large part because of the doctors’ public statements. The city is among several Mississippi municipalities that imposed additional restrictions and mask orders on its residents early on in the pandemic and again after local cases increased.

“They didn’t do it for the fun of it. They did it for a reason. They did it because their cases were getting away from them and after they did it, their community numbers improved,” said Vicksburg physician Dr. Dan Edney, who sits on the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure, which oversees doctor discipline.

The board is not going to consider taking actions against doctors for expressing their professional disagreements, Edney said, but it could intervene if clinics are not following health orders, such as requiring masks and limiting the number of people in waiting rooms.

In the meantime, rhetoric that discourages people from practicing protective measures against the virus remains one of the state’s biggest threats. Dobbs told Mississippi Today that Mississippi would be in a much better position with its cases today if COVID-19 conspiracy theories had not run rampant.

“We don’t have a cohesive society,” Dobbs said to doctors on July 10. “Actually, this is a disease of a splintered society, where people don’t trust science and run quickly to every crazy theory that they can to avoid reality.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story should have specified that there was just one intensive care unit open in tier one and two hospitals in the Jackson area.

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Rep. Manly Barton, R-Moss Point

State Rep. Manly Barton, R-Moss Point, remained hospitalized on Thursday after contracting coronavirus at the Capitol, several of his colleagues told Mississippi Today.

Barton is one of dozens of lawmakers and staffers infected with COVID-19 from an outbreak at the state Capitol.

“He was in ICU,” said House Appropriations Chairman John Read, one of Barton’s fellow Jackson Countians. “The report I got (Thursday) morning was that he is on oxygen only, he was awake and communicating.”

Barton, 71, was reportedly hospitalized on Sunday.

Read and others on social media called for prayers and well wishes for Barton, a nine-year lawmaker, former longtime Jackson County supervisor and Vietnam combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient.

“As many know, over the two weeks since the House and Senate left the Capitol, dozens of lawmakers and staff have tested positive for COVID-19,” Read posted on Facebook. “While most have already recovered, a few are still struggling. One of our most beloved chairmen … Rep. Manly Barton remains hospitalized.

“Manly is as tough as they come,” Read wrote. “He took a bullet in Vietnam and has lived a life of services to his community, state and nation … Please join me in saying a prayer for healing and recovery for one of the finest men any of us know in the House of Representatives.”

Moss Point Alderman Wayne Lennep posted: “Please pray for our friend … Manly was admitted to the hospital Sunday. Please pray for the others as well.”

State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs on Tuesday said that 41 people, including 30 legislators, have tested positive so far from a Capitol outbreak before the Legislature left Jackson on July 1. Dobbs said there have been two hospitalizations associated with the Capitol outbreak.

Both Speaker of the House Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, have tested positive. Spokespersons for both this week said they were doing well and both self-isolating at home.

The post Coast lawmaker hospitalized after COVID-19 outbreak at Capitol appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Yvonne Moore collects specimen for COVID-19 testing outside of the Aaron E. Henry Community Health Services Center in Clarksdale, Miss., Wednesday, March 29, 2020.

The state health department reported 1,230 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the most reported in a single day for Mississippi. The previous record for new cases was 1,092, reported on June 25.

The rolling seven-day average for new cases is now at 887, also a new high for the state. In four out of the last five days, the seven-day average has broken the state’s previous record.

Thursday’s report marks the first time the state has reported two consecutive days of more than 1,000 new cases as the total cases in the state since March nears 40,000. The total cases have increased by 97 percent, or nearly doubled, since exactly a month ago.

In what’s called its “illness onset” data, MSDH tracks the day that patients report experiencing symptoms. As of Wednesday, the agency’s website shows a record of 1,075 people becoming sick on July 6, the Monday after the Fourth of July holiday. The next-most illnesses reported in a day is 694.

As Mississippi’s top health officials attested to a week ago, the state’s hospitals and ICUs are under increasing stress. MSDH’s latest numbers show 855 confirmed hospitalizations from COVID-19 on Wednesday, a 90 percent increase from exactly a month ago. The seven-day average for confirmed hospitalizations, used to smooth out day-to-day variability, has increased for 27 straight days.

July 6 also marked a new high for deaths in a day, with 25. As of yesterday’s data, the seven-day average for deaths nearly doubled from 9 per day in late June to 16 per day on July 8. The record for that measure is 17 per day, set back in May.

The rolling average for the state’s positivity rate — the percent of tests that return positive — peaked on July 11 at 20 percent. That number’s since dropped to 15 percent, but is still higher than it was for the entire month of June.

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Author Angie Thomas talks self-doubt, giving back, her own biases and homegrown recognition amidst a complicated relationship with Mississippi

By Erica Hensley | August 9, 2020

When Angie Thomas got word she had won an award from Mississippi, she was shocked. 

Not only did the award from the Mississippi Institute for Arts and Letters mean more because it was homegrown, it was also for a book she knows makes readers uncomfortable — especially readers in traditionally white, Southern spaces. 

“It means a lot more because I recognize that I connected with a number of people through my words, people that I may not have necessarily thought I would have connected with,” Thomas told Mississippi Today. “And it makes me check myself too and recognize that I put biases on people here, and I make assumptions here. I don’t want people to do the same to me, so I gotta stop doing that when it comes to my work and stop assuming that certain types of people wouldn’t read it.”

“So when I got word that I got that award for a book about a rapper, I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ … I’m very appreciative for it. I think this is the one I’m probably most proud of, of all the awards I’ve gotten, because it does come from home.”

In “On the Come Up,” — her 2019 follow-up to the debut bestseller “The Hate U Give” — we meet Bri, a 16-year-old rapper who harkens back to Thomas’s own foray into writing verse, then eventually prose. The book echoes themes prevalent in Thomas’s first book but on a micro scale and shows us how one of our culture’s bedrock principles, that young people should be free to express themselves, doesn’t always apply to young women like Bri. For her, rapping is a way to make sense of and work through the cycle of poverty, violence and addiction that has ravaged her family and others around her. But, to the authority figures in her life, it’s just violent noise that needs to be silenced.

The novel also pays homage to Thomas’s hometown of Jackson — from the scenes taking place at Midtown Arts High School and Sal’s pizza spot to the protagonist’s surname. (Watch, too, for the Outkast and “Black Panther” references.)

Other references to Mississippi are more sobering, reflecting some of the time’s most heated debates. Bri’s attempts to navigate a mostly white charter school highlights the state’s ongoing school-choice debate, while the book also touches on the social and environmental determinants of health, the social safety net, educational disparities and racial profiling.

As her books challenge the status-quo, Thomas, too, has been vocal about her complicated relationship with Mississippi. 

“It’s definitely a complex relationship in the sense where I’m always looking for hope in Mississippi, and I’m always getting disappointed by Mississippi. But, I can’t give up on it because there is so much good here,” she said. “There’s so much good here aside from the bad.”

That’s both why this award catches her differently from the others and provides another impetus to dig in here while focusing on cultivating joy and giving back. 

That giving back has changed the life of 18-year-old Jackson native Imani Skipwith who, thanks to a new scholarship in Thomas’s name from her alma mater, is attending Jackson’s Belhaven University’s creative writing program on a four-year full-ride scholarship. 

Though she realized she wanted to be a writer in middle school, it wasn’t until a teacher at the Mississippi School for the Arts, where she transferred after 11 years at Jackson Public Schools, helped cultivate her skillset and encouraged her to start a portfolio of her poetry and short stories. Despite “finding inspiration in quarantine” over the past year, Skipwith still doubted herself and her work and was unsure what pursuing a creative writing career would even look like. Until she got a Zoom call from Angie Thomas in April. 

“Winning this did something,” she said. “It’s something solid I can grab on to.” Of Thomas’s support, she said: “Her work can validate other people — no matter where you come from, no matter what you do, you can get somewhere. This scholarship will help (young people) find self-love and help them in their journey. It’s such a weight off to know someone is in your corner.” In the midst of getting the award herself, she’s already excited for future recipients to share in Thomas-driven Belhaven support system.

Despite her self-doubt that’s slowly growing into self-confidence, she says, Skipwith’s work packs punches while balancing both weight and light. She writes about mental illness and oppression in heavy, but deeply self-aware, ways for a young writer. Through scenes like alternative history narratives of the Vietnam War and sci-fi prose, her writing is bright with emotion and clamors with symbolism, while still begging grounded questions of equity and fairness. Thomas couldn’t help but be impressed after reviewing Skipwith’s portfolio and, upon choosing her work on a blind-read to win the scholarship, told her, “You did this and God did this. I’m just helping you out.”

For Skipwith, the scholarship is two-fold, plus some. The financial support is key — not having to take out loans means she won’t start her writing career in debt and any extra savings in her household can go toward helping her 8-year-old sister save up for college. But, equally important, says Skipwith, is the validation and support that comes from knowing Thomas is in her corner. 

“For Angie to get to know me, for her to tell me I’m a good writer — this will become a reaching point for people like me,” Skipwith said. “I cried so hard when I found out, and it’s just a way to break away from everything (negative) you heard.”

For Thomas, that emotional support piece is pivotal — and too often missing, especially for young girls that look like her, she says. She did have to take out loans to pay for Belhaven and was all too aware of the lacking diversity in her program at the time. She said the emotional weight of not feeling like she fit in at first compiled upon the financial hardship. She was one of the only students from Jackson — on a Jackson campus — and the first Black young person to graduate from the creative writing program. 

“If any of this validates her in any way, I’m so thrilled. Honestly it is important for young people to have that going into college. I think about it — had I had that when I was entering Belhaven in the creative writing program, my experience probably would have been a whole lot different because I was so afraid of, ‘Well what if I’m not good enough, or what if this or what if that?” and validation plays a huge role in all of this. For me, a big part of what I do is giving back to others — instilling in others either what I received or what I didn’t receive,” Thomas said.

“That’s one of the things, validating young writers and letting them know that the stories they want to tell matter. Their voices matter. Their dreams matter, just as much as their lives. If I can even be a footnote in (Skipwith’s) writing legacy or another young person’s writing legacy, then I’ve accomplished mine.”

Thomas hopes the annual scholarship will help give hope to Jackson’s young people, who might not have been supported in their writing and who need help making college work financially. But, too, knowing that there are support systems out there.

“The stress of (loans) is not something any young person should have to deal with when deciding to get a higher education, but that’s the reality we live in. And, specifically young people in Mississippi — so often they deal with other hardships, and I really wanted to reach out to young people in schools that were in the area where they may be dealing with a lot of financial hardship,” she said. “There are kids in Jackson right now who have never seen a skyscraper and there are skyscrapers in downtown Jackson. They’ve never been downtown, never seen an alleyway, never seen anything beyond their neighborhood. And, so, when they don’t see beyond, they don’t know beyond.” 

For Thomas, it all comes back to the homegrown recognition for a book written for and to young people of color telling them, “You’ve got this.” 

“I hope that it tells young people who identify with my books that they matter here in Mississippi too, that their stories matter here in Mississippi, that a book written to them is getting an award like this,” she says. “I hope it validates them and their existence even a little bit more to know that, yeah, even when there’s an award for literature, a story about a young person like you can get that award. That means you’re worthy, that means you matter, that means your story matters.”

Angie Thomas’s third novel “Concrete Rose,” a prequel to “The Hate U Give,” will be released January 12, 2021 by HarperCollins.

The post Author Angie Thomas talks self-doubt, giving back, her own biases and homegrown recognition amid a complicated relationship with Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Mike Espy, a former congressman and former U.S. agriculture secretary, announces that he is running against U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in 2020 for her Senate seat.

Democrat Mike Espy raised nearly three times the money Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith raised in the second quarter of 2020, according to campaign finance reports released on Tuesday evening.

Espy raised $610,000 between April 1 and June 30. Hyde-Smith raised just $212,000 in that same period. Despite her poor second quarter, Hyde-Smith has still raised more money than Espy this campaign cycle: $2.1 million to Espy’s $1.4 million.

The November general election is a rematch between the two candidates, who squared off in a 2018 special election to fill the seat of the late U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. Hyde-Smith defeated Espy in a runoff by eight points — the closest a Democrat has come to the U.S. Senate in the modern political era.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America

Cindy Hyde-Smith, right, is congratulated by her daughter, Anna-Michael Smith, after winning the Senate runoff election against Mike Espy Tuesday, November 27, 2018.

This campaign cycle, Hyde-Smith has raised less money than every incumbent U.S. senator who isn’t retiring, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. One reason for her struggle to raise money is backlash following racially insensitive comments she made late in the 2018 special election.

Hyde-Smith made several remarks on the trail — including saying she would attend a “public hanging” — that garnered national scrutiny and inspired numerous corporate political committees to ask Hyde-Smith to return their previous contributions. Some of those PACs included Major League Baseball, AT&T, Union Pacific, Aetna, Pfizer, Google and Facebook.

As the candidates ramp up their campaigns ahead of the November election, race will continue to shape the political narrative. The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police has inspired a national movement that has reached the state of Mississippi in profound and historic ways.

After tens of thousands have marched dozens of Mississippi cities’ streets in protest, local governments across the state have toppled Confederate iconography. The Mississippi Legislature, after decades of apprehension, voted last month to remove the state flag, the last in the nation featuring the Confederate battle emblem.

Espy, who in the 1990s became the first black congressman elected in Mississippi since Reconstruction, has framed his campaign messaging around his family’s contribution to racial justice and the demands of Black Lives Matter organizers. He’s criticized Hyde-Smith in recent days for her ties to Confederate imagery, and he’s highlighted her silence on the contentious debate over whether to change the state flag.

Successful fundraising, while vital to statewide candidates, does not necessarily translate to broad support at the polls, as Espy knows better than anyone. In 2018, Espy raised $7.5 million compared to $5.5 million for the victorious Hyde-Smith. Though he lost, he became the first Democrat in several statewide elections to outraise a Republican opponent.

One advantage to fundraising success could become national attention. After Hyde-Smith’s controversial comments came to light in the 2018 election, national reporters flocked to the state to cover the possibility of a Democrat swiping a Senate seat from the Republican Party. And as debate across the nation rages regarding racial inequities and unequal representation in government, the race could again draw national headlines and additional fundraising success for Espy.

Exactly how much national attention and funding will pour into the Mississippi race remains to be seen. In the 2020 presidential election year, Democratic Senate candidates in several Republican-controlled states are getting media attention and focused national funds as pundits believe Democrats have a shot to gain majority control of the U.S. Senate. So far this year, Espy and Mississippi have largely missed that connection.

But Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez told Mississippi Today in late 2019 the national party would invest in Mississippi for the third straight election year.

The post Democrat Mike Espy outraises GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith nearly 3-to-1 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith voted to object to the electoral vote of Arizona on Wednesday.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith was one of few U.S. senators on Wednesday to object to the certification of the electoral votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania, states that duly elected Democrat Joe Biden as president in November over Republican President Donald Trump.

Hyde-Smith, an ardent Trump supporter, backed the effort of a small number of Senate Republicans who aimed to overturn Biden’s victory by pushing disproven theories and inaccuracies about Arizona and Pennsylvania botching the election process.

The senator had remained silent before Wednesday about how she would vote on the certification of the Biden presidential victory in several states. In a statement on Wednesday night, Hyde-Smith said she heard from “many Mississippians who are troubled by the conduct of the election in various states and the eventual outcome.”

“I, along with my constituents, are alarmed with the erosion of integrity of the electoral process,” Hyde-Smith said in the statement. “The people I represent do not believe the presidential election was constitutional and cannot accept the electoral college decision; therefore, I cannot in good conscience support certification.”

All six senators who objected to the Arizona certification and the seven who objected to Pennsylvania on Wednesday night were Republicans and loyal supporters of the current president. The other senators voted to certify the elections, with key leaders in both the Republican and Democratic parties blistering their colleagues who planned to vote against certification.

“Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey. All I can say is count me out, enough is enough,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican. “When it’s over, it is over. It’s over.”

Republican Roger Wicker, Mississippi’s senior U.S. senator, voted to certify all 50 state results.

“(The Trump) campaign lost a close election, and it is time to acknowledge that,” Wicker said in a statement earlier this week. “The president’s own attorney general, his head of election security, and a number of Trump-appointed, conservative federal judges all have found that, despite widespread allegations of fraud, there simply was not enough evidence to change the outcome of the election in any state.”

Wicker continued: “I know many of my fellow Mississippians will disagree with my decision, and I share their commitment to making sure our elections are fair. But I must vote according to my conscience, my oath of office, and my understanding of the rule of law. I hope that with the start of a new Congress, we can take steps to restore faith in America’s electoral system.”

Congress met in joint session on Wednesday to certify the electoral votes from the states. Biden, a Democrat, received 306 of the 538 elector votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Though the certification of the electoral votes from the states is normally a formality, the law allows Congress to reject them and theoretically select the new president.

Republicans did not have nearly enough votes in the House or Senate to reject the Biden election, and constitutional scholars questioned whether Congress could overturn the results in the first place.

A group of House and Senate Republicans — ardent supporters of Trump, who has for weeks pushed disproven theories about widespread election fraud — indicated last week they would challenge those electoral votes from certain states Biden won.

But the proceedings were abruptly halted on Wednesday afternoon when a violent mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, aiming to overturn the results of the election.

READ MORE: Pro-Trump mob storms U.S. Capitol, members of Congress evacuated.

The pro-Trump rioters — incited earlier Wednesday morning by the president’s oldest son and other close allies of the president — assaulted Capitol Police officers, smashed windows and tore down security barricades on their way into the building, prompting officials to lock down both legislative chambers of the building and nearby congressional office buildings.

The moment marked the first time that the Capitol was breached by a large, violent group since the War of 1812. Several high-profile members of Congress were evacuated, and others were told to shelter in place during the hours-long lockdown.

By the time police cleared the Capitol and lawmakers returned to finish the certification process on Wednesday evening, several of the Republicans in both the House and Senate who had earlier planned to object to elector certification reversed their positions.

Many Republicans even called Trump out specifically for inciting the violence.

“The events that have transpired today have forced me to reconsider, and I cannot now in good conscience object to the certification of these electors,” said Sen. Kelly Leoffler, a Republican from Georgia who’d previously planned to object. “The violence, the lawlessness… stand as a direct attack on the very institution my objection was intended to protect.”

Many pundits believe Trump singlehandedly saved Hyde-Smith’s Senate candidacy in the 2018 special election after she said she would sit “on the front row of a public hanging” with a supporter. Trump hosted three Mississippi rallies for Hyde-Smith in 2018, when she narrowly won a special election to replace longtime Sen. Thad Cochran, who stepped down for health reasons.

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Reps. Trent Kelly, above, Michael Guest and Steven Palazzo backed the failed effort of lawmakers who aimed to overturn Biden’s victory. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

All three Mississippi Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives were among the several House Republicans on Wednesday to object to the certification of the electoral college votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania, states that duly elected Democrat Joe Biden as president in November over Republican President Donald Trump.

Reps. Trent Kelly, Michael Guest and Steven Palazzo — all ardent supporters of Trump — backed the failed effort of lawmakers who aimed to overturn Biden’s victory by pushing disproven theories and inaccuracies about Arizona and Pennsylvania botching the election process.

Mississippi’s Republicans were among 121 House Republicans who objected to the electoral vote of Arizona and among 138 House Republicans who objected to the Pennsylvania electoral vote.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi’s only Democrat in Washington, voted to certify all 50 states. Before their votes late Wednesday night, Kelly and Guest had previously acknowledged that Biden had won the election.

“The United States Constitution gives state legislatures the exclusive jurisdiction to determine how elections will be conducted, commonly referred to as the Electors Clause,” Guest said in a statement after the vote. “Simply put, these states failed to conduct elections that followed the requirements set up by their state legislatures and outlined in our Constitution.”

By Thursday morning, Kelly and Palazzo had not yet publicly justified why they voted the way they did.

In the Senate, Mississippi’s U.S. senators split in the electoral challenges. Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith voted with the small minority to reject the votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania. Republican Sen. Roger Wicker voted with 94 of his colleagues to certify the results in all 50 states.

READ MORE: Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith supports losing effort to overturn Biden presidential victory.

“(The Trump) campaign lost a close election, and it is time to acknowledge that,” Wicker said in a statement earlier this week. “The president’s own attorney general, his head of election security, and a number of Trump-appointed, conservative federal judges all have found that, despite widespread allegations of fraud, there simply was not enough evidence to change the outcome of the election in any state.”

Wicker continued: “I know many of my fellow Mississippians will disagree with my decision, and I share their commitment to making sure our elections are fair. But I must vote according to my conscience, my oath of office, and my understanding of the rule of law. I hope that with the start of a new Congress, we can take steps to restore faith in America’s electoral system.”

Congress met in joint session on Wednesday and early Thursday to certify the electoral votes from the states. Biden, a Democrat, received 306 of the 538 elector votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Though the certification of the electoral votes from the states is normally a formality, the law allows Congress to reject them and theoretically select the new president.

Republicans did not have nearly enough votes in the House or Senate to reject the Biden election, and constitutional scholars questioned whether Congress could overturn the results in the first place.

A group of House and Senate Republicans — ardent supporters of Trump, who has for weeks pushed disproven theories about widespread election fraud — indicated last week they would challenge those electoral votes from certain states Biden won.

But the proceedings were abruptly halted on Wednesday afternoon when a violent mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, aiming to overturn the results of the election.

READ MORE: Pro-Trump mob storms U.S. Capitol, members of Congress evacuated.

The pro-Trump rioters — incited earlier Wednesday morning by the president’s oldest son and other close allies of the president — assaulted Capitol Police officers, smashed windows and tore down security barricades on their way into the building, prompting officials to lock down both legislative chambers of the building and nearby congressional office buildings.

The moment marked the first time that the Capitol was breached by a large, violent group since the War of 1812. Several high-profile members of Congress were evacuated, and others were told to shelter in place during the hours-long lockdown.

By the time police cleared the Capitol and lawmakers returned to finish the certification process on Wednesday evening, several of the Republicans in both the House and Senate who had earlier planned to object to elector certification reversed their positions.

Many Republicans even called Trump out specifically for inciting the violence.

“The events that have transpired today have forced me to reconsider, and I cannot now in good conscience object to the certification of these electors,” said Sen. Kelly Leoffler, a Republican from Georgia who’d previously planned to object. “The violence, the lawlessness… stand as a direct attack on the very institution my objection was intended to protect.”

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U.S. Capitol Police with guns drawn stand near a barricaded door as protesters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, chair of a key subcommittee over Capitol Police, was noncommittal Thursday as other lawmakers called for investigations into Wednesday’s riot at the U.S. Capitol and response from police and military.

Hyde-Smith, Mississippi’s junior senator and a Republican, serves as chair of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee of Senate Appropriations, which has budget and spending oversight authority over Capitol Police. The Democratic chair of the same subcommittee in the House on Thursday announced a “review of the law enforcement response to yesterday’s coup attempt.”

Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith serves as chair of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee of Senate Appropriations, which has budget and spending oversight authority over Capitol Police.

In a written statement on Thursday, a Hyde-Smith spokesman said: “Senator Hyde-Smith continues to monitor the situation closely. Committees of jurisdiction, the U.S. Capitol Police and others will examine these events thoroughly in terms of how this tragedy occurred, how to prevent a repeated occurrence, and how to improve the security of the Capitol campus while ensuring orderly and appropriate public access.”

Hyde-Smith’s statement stands in contrast to the public comments of the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Murphy on Wednesday was more vocal in calling for investigation and reform after the takeover of the Capitol.

“I have had two phone calls with the Chief of the Capitol Police and one with the Secretary of the Army in the last 14 hours,” Murphy tweeted on Thursday. “… We need major reform to the way we defend the Capitol and we need to get started now.

“There will be many videos, some will raise concern, some will show heroism,” Murphy said. “We need a full investigation on how the Capitol’s security was breached this quickly. As the ranking member on the committee that funds the Capitol Police, I intend to be at the forefront of that inquiry.”

Murphy also said a key question from Wednesday’s attack is “why it took hours for there to be a response from the U.S. military to an armed invasion of the United States Capitol.”

“Why spend $700B on the military if they can’t defend the Capitol from attack?” Murphy said.

Hyde-Smith’s chairmanship of the subcommittee is likely short-lived, with Democrats soon to take control of the Senate after this week’s elections in Georgia.

READ MORE: Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith supports losing effort to overturn Biden presidential victory.

On the House side, Legislative Branch Subcommittee Chair Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, in a joint press release with Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, said, “It is obvious that there was a severe systemic failure in securing the building’s perimeter and the response once the building was breached.”

“To ensure the safety of those who work and visit here, we must get to the bottom of these breakdowns and prevent them from ever happening again. (The subcommittee) is robustly investigating yesterday’s events, including with hearings to directly question key leaders about what went wrong.”

The Capitol Police force, created in 1800 when Congress moved from Philadelphia to Washington, has about 2,000 sworn officers and 350 civilian employees. Its budget this year is about $516 million.

Besides budget and spending oversight by the Legislative Branch committees, the Committee on House Administration and Senate Committee on Rules and Administration have authorization oversight of the agency.

As some lawmakers called for his resignation on Thursday, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund issued a statement that included:

“The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol was unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D.C. Maintaining public safety in an open environment — specifically for First Amendment activities — has long been a challenge. The USCP had a robust plan established to address anticipated First Amendment activities. But make no mistake – these mass riots were not First Amendment activities; they were criminal riotous behavior. The actions of the USCP officers were heroic given the situation they faced, and I continue to have tremendous respect in the professionalism and dedication of the women and men of the United States Capitol Police.”

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Fulton Carson, shown here with Iowa State players coming onto the field at the 2012 Liberty Bowl.

When Hinds County resident Fulton Carson takes the field Monday night for college football’s national championship game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, it is quite possible that no participant will have come further.

We’re not talking miles here.

Carson, born in Vicksburg and raised on a farm in Utica, will serve as the side judge on the Big 12 Conference crew that will officiate the Alabama-Ohio State game that will be watched by millions.

Nervous, Carson was asked?

“Well, I’ve got nervous energy,” he replied from his home in Raymond. “Anybody who tells you they aren’t nervous for something like this is probably in the wrong business — that or they aren’t telling the truth. Obviously, it is an intense moment. But nervous energy is good. Once the game gets underway and you start focusing on the rules and the game, the nerves go away.”

Rick Cleveland

Carson, a 55-year-old computer scientist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will fly to Miami Saturday morning. That’s a relatively short trip, but the road to the national championship game has been a long and curvy one. He was one of 10 children born to farming parents. “My three brothers and I call ourselves the last of the farmers,” he said chuckling. “We grew up working on the family farm.”

When he wasn’t doing farm chores, young Carson played ball: baseball, basketball, football, you name it.

Baseball was his best sport, which led to a scholarship to play for Mississippi Valley State, where he was a slick-fielding shortstop and an excellent student in industrial technology. Carson graduated in 1988 but did not immediately begin to officiate.

“I did a lot of volunteering, working with kids in my community,” he said. “That included both coaching and officiating. Some of my friends started officiating junior high and high school games. I thought to myself, ‘Hey, I can do that,’ and so I did.”

Fulton Carson was a proud father recently when his daughter, Shelby Carson, signed to play softball at Mississippi Valley State.

Carson began by doing junior high and high school junior varsity games. Then he moved up to varsity games, both officiating football and umpiring baseball.

He says it wasn’t so much for the money as it was for staying involved.

“To me, officiating is a lot like community service,” Carson said. “You really are serving your community. Without officials you can’t have the games. I don’t care whether you’re officiating a Texas game at Oklahoma or a high school game in Sebastopol. That game is important to those players, those coaches and those fans. You owe them the same energy, the same focus. You want to get it right.”

From high school games, Carson moved to the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), where he called games with fellow MVSU graduate and former SEC official Hubert Owens.

“He was excellent, just excellent,” Owens said of Carson. “He hd a quiet demeanor. He was knowledgeable and professional and eager to learn all he could. He was like a sponge.”

Owens said he lobbied long and hard for the SEC to hire Carson. That never happened, but Carson did hear from the Mountain West Conference in 2010. And after working MWC games for two seasons, he was hired by the Big 12 in 2012.

He has moved up the officiating ladder in the Big 12, drawing more and more of the most high-profile games, including this past season’s Big 12 Championship Game. He has done many bowl games in the past. He has done national championship games at the lesser Division I level. Clearly, he has done well. After all, you don’t get assigned to a national championship game if you haven’t graded well during the regular season.

“I am honored and I am grateful, and I thank God for it,” Carson said. “I owe a lot to the older guys who were officiating high school games when I got started. There were a lot of those guys who could have done what I am doing now. They just never got the chance.”

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Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America

U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith waves to drivers as she holds a campaign sign in Jackson on Nov. 6, 2018.

Four of the six members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation, by their votes this past week, were trying to usurp the authority of state and local officials and the courts to conduct and oversee elections.

The four — U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Reps. Trent Kelly, Michael Guest and Steven Palazzo — said they know better than the state and local officials and better than the judiciary, including better than the U.S. Supreme Court, how elections for president should be conducted.

Their disregard for the U.S. court system is notable since Hyde-Smith and others campaigned for re-election last year on how great it was that the judiciary had been populated by appointees of President Donald Trump, including three of his appointees to the Supreme Court. Now that it comes to the issue of the presidential election, they are ignoring the rulings of those judges.

During a chaotic and dramatic Wednesday afternoon and early Thursday morning at the nation’s Capitol, a group of minority Republican lawmakers, including the four Mississippians, challenged the presidential election results from Arizona and Pennsylvania. The original plan was to challenge the results in other states — all lost by President Donald Trump — but the challengers apparently got cold feet after Trump supporters attacked the Capitol that day, causing widespread destruction and death and temporarily halting what is normally a ceremonial event of accepting the election results from the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

There are two other members of Mississippi’s congressional delegation: Sen. Roger Wicker and Rep. Bennie Thompson. Like other congressional Democrats, Thompson voted to accept the state results that gave the presidential and vice presidential elections to Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Wicker, the state’s senior senator, said he was disappointed with the outcome of the election but could not substitute his judgment in overseeing elections for that of state and local officials and of the judiciary.

“Congress cannot — and should not — get into the business of deciding the results of our elections,” Wicker, a Tupelo resident, said in a statement. “Under the Constitution and federal law, Congress’s power is limited to counting electoral votes duly submitted by the states. Anything further would not be compatible with our Constitution or the conservative principles of limited government that I have sworn to defend.

“I also fear any attempt by Congress to overturn state election results would empower national Democrats to hasten the end of the Electoral College, which preserves a voice for smaller states like Mississippi in our national elections. Without the Electoral College, large, liberal states like New York and California would likely determine the direction of our republic to its detriment.”

In a statement, Guest said he voted to challenge the electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania because of changes to the election process in those states that were not approved by their legislatures.

“The United States Constitution gives state legislatures the exclusive jurisdiction to determine how elections will be conducted, commonly referred to as the Electors Clause. Simply put, these states failed to conduct elections that followed the requirements set up by their state legislatures and outlined in our Constitution,” Guest said.

Those issues highlighted by Guest had been brought before the judiciary in literally dozens of lawsuits and rejected.

If Guest and the other challengers had prevailed, the votes of literally millions of Americans would have been thrown out. For instance, one of the issues cited by the objectors that affected the most voters occurred in Pennsylvania where the Republican-controlled Legislature in October 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit approved a bill to allow no excuse mail-in voting.

After the election was completed in November and it became clear President Trump had lost, his supporters filed a lawsuit saying the ballots of those Pennsylvanians who voted early by mail should be discarded because a change in the state Constitution was needed to enact early voting by mail.

That was not the opinion of Republican Pennsylvania legislators at the time they approved the bill, and it was not the opinion of the judiciary. And a question that should be considered: Would it have been fair to throw out the ballots of 2.5 million Pennsylvanians who voted in good faith through a system their elected officials offered to them?

Guest, Kelly and Wicker are all attorneys. With all due respect to Wicker, Kelly and Guest have more recent courtroom experience. Until their relatively recent elections to the U.S. House, they both served as district attorneys — Kelly in northeast Mississippi and Guest in central Mississippi.

As DAs, they routinely argued before members of the judiciary and accepted their decision as final at some point in the process

Perhaps they were tired of doing that and saw the presidential election as an opportunity to ignore the rulings of judges.

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