Here & Now

Kleefisch on 2022 Governor Run

Frederica Freyberg:

First up tonight, former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch takes a break from her campaign to join us. Kleefisch served as Scott Walker’s lieutenant governor during his two terms in office between 2011 and 2019. Before that, Kleefisch worked as a television news reporter and anchor in Rockford, Illinois and then Milwaukee. More recently, she served as executive director of the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission in 2019. When Rebecca Kleefisch joined us earlier, I started by asking her about her recent COVID-19 breakthrough infection. How are you feeling now?

Rebecca Kleefisch:

I’m fine. Thank you for asking, but it is really important that when you hear about cases like mine that we are reminded that everybody’s body treats this really differently. And, you know, I was fine but there was a lot of people who are really suffering with COVID-19. And so we continue to urge people to take good care of themselves and also everybody just have an extra measure of patience and grace for folks who want to protect themselves or want to take extra measures or, you know, want to have freedom, individual liberty. Everybody treats this very differently, and everybody’s body treats this very differently.

Frederica Freyberg:

In fact, you say you want to “ensure robust protection for conscience in a pandemic.” What does that mean?

Rebecca Kleefisch:

That means we want to protect individual liberties and we want to make sure that government is not dictating health care decisions when it comes to the Constitution.

Frederica Freyberg:

So should people take precautions against primary or breakthrough cases by masking indoors or in schools, for example? As governor, how would you keep people safe?

Rebecca Kleefisch:

Well, I would make sure that people were well aware of the facts. And the facts have been changed over the last year and a half. We know that the Delta variant is brand new and it’s a breakthrough variant. I was vaccinated. There are a lot of people who are dealing with COVID diagnoses even after being vaccinated. And so I think it’s really important that we continue with good hygiene practices like hand washing, making sure we are staying distant from people we don’t know, whether they have it or not. If you’re sick, make sure you stay home from work or from school. We in America, we in Wisconsin tend to believe that working hard and working through sickness is proving ground for great work ethic. Under these circumstances it’s just not smart. We also need to respect people’s individual choices. If someone wants to wear a mask and has made a decision that that’s the right health care choice for them, then we would respect it and not make folks feel shamed for either wearing a mask or not wearing one. We have no idea what’s going on in people’s personal lives and what their personal choices may be based on conversations they’ve had with their families or maybe their doctors.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, you support Donald Trump and call him “one of the most successful policy presidents of our time, one of the most pro-life presidents ever.” Do you support his continued charges that the 2020 election was stolen, that in fact Joe Biden did not win?

Rebecca Kleefisch:

Frederica, I have said many times that Joe Biden is the president of the United States. However, I do think there should be a full investigation of what happened in Wisconsin in 2020 because we are risking people walking away from the electoral process completely because they don’t feel like their vote counts. So we need to get to the bottom of it and reassure folks that walking away from our Democratic republic, our election process, is not the way we handle things. That in fact we want to make sure that people are completely franchised, that they go and they vote and they vote passionately to keep this Democratic Republic going.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you support these investigations in Wisconsin, even in the face of court challenges that failed on the part of Donald Trump and recounts?

Rebecca Kleefisch:

I think it’s important that everyone vote. And I think the concern we have is people disenfranchise because they don’t believe their vote counts or they feel like some suspicious or scurrilous activity went down in November of 2020. We need to assure people that we have gotten to the bottom of 2020 so that they can rest assured that their vote is secure and counts. In Wisconsin, we need to make it easy to vote, but we also need to make it hard to cheat and we need to give people assurances that their vote matters.

Frederica Freyberg:

Shifting gears a little bit, as to your last election and the promised jobs at Foxconn, what’s your response to the company not delivering on those?

Rebecca Kleefisch:

I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed the same as anyone across Wisconsin who had high hopes for 13,000 jobs delivered nearly right away. But I will say that our jobs tax credits were never delivered because the bar was set extremely high in the Walker-Kleefisch administration. Tony Evers lowered the bar. This is not the first time Tony Evers has lowered the bar. But my hope is that we will still see tremendous job creation because of some investments that were made in infrastructure.

Frederica Freyberg:

Okay. We need to leave it there. We are at time, but I trust that we will be speaking with you more in the very near future. Thank you very much.

Rebecca Kleefisch:

No doubt. Thank you.