Gov. McMaster set a good example for all public officials: Call out lies, demand due process | Opinion

I saw something in the paper the other day that almost took my breath away.

A lie was called a lie.

To his credit, Gov. Henry McMaster has done that publicly and repeatedly as he has addressed criticism against his choice to head the new South Carolina Department of Public Health, Dr. Edward Simmer.

Critics are calling the 30-year Navy doctor our version of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was America’s leading voice for public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Simmer is being branded as an enemy of “medical freedom” and a mask and vaccine totalitarian.

McMaster said that’s not true.

It was in my colleague Matthew T. Hall’s column on the Simmer situation that I read these stunning words from McMaster: “I have not found a word of truth about the allegations they’re making against that man. He wasn’t even here when all those mandates were going on. He wasn’t even here.”

The pandemic, and the state’s and nation’s public response to it, were well under way when Simmer was hired in February 2021 as director of the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control. He was subsequently named interim director of the Department of Public Health when DHEC was split into two agencies.

McMaster defends Simmer as an eminently qualified stalwart who was at his side almost daily as South Carolina made its way through the pandemic better than most states did.

But that’s not the important point.

The important thing is that a state leader — a conservative Republican and devotee of President Donald Trump – recognized lies and had the courage to call them that in the public square.

We need more of that because lies are flying like rounds from machine guns all day every day.

McMaster pointed out one of the dangers when false accusations go unchallenged.

“This is the very reason that people do not want to get into public office because they are erroneously attacked for ulterior motives,” he said. “It is dangerous. It is dangerous to our state. This man is eminently qualified.”

It is pitifully dangerous when an entire nation is led to believe that it is inferior and that no one can trust elections, judges, law enforcement officials, longtime international allies, journalists, bureaucrats, doctors, librarians, immigrants — or each other.

Much of that distrust is fueled by lies.

More leaders need to relocate their spines and say, “No. That’s not true. I will not accept that.”

The first thing out of our mouths when reading anything online — and especially from those interviewing government officials – should be, “What is your source?”

Or as reputable journalists do, confirm information with at least two sources.

The second important thing McMaster did was call for due process.

He acknowledges that some people will not like his choice to enhance public health in one of America’s most unhealthy states.

But he reminded us about one of America’s greatest assets, one taken from the pages of the Torah and the Magna Carta before forming the backbone of our Constitution: Due process.

“They ought to let the man have his hearing, ask him the questions and give him a fair hearing,” McMaster said.

He added: “I do not know if we could find anyone as good as, much less better than, Dr. Simmer, so I think those that are criticizing him ought to take a good look at the facts and then decide what they want to say.”

Nominated by McMaster in November, Simmer received his first a confirmation hearing on March 20 before the state Senate Medical Affairs Committee. He was not bashful to say what is at stake.

“These falsehoods and lies not only impact me,” he said. “They are dangerous. They erode the public’s trust in our front-line health care workers and put the people who believe the lies and falsehoods at risk.”

Little did I know what a prophetess my high school chemistry teacher, Mrs. Saunders, would become in my old age.

The only thing I remember from that old scientist’s class was her often repeated admonition: “Don’t believe anything you hear, or half of what you see.”