Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin (R) has taken to pretending to be the state’s regular governor when Gov. Brad Little (R) is away.
McGeachin – who is is herself running for governor – has used the opportunity of Little’s out-of-state travels to throw red meat to the conservative base. Anti-vaccine posturing? Check. Immigration bashing? Check.
In her latest gubernatorial cosplay, McGeachin issued an executive order Tuesday banning workplace vaccine requirements while Little was away in Texas huddling with other GOP governors at the border.
“Today, as Acting Governor, I fixed Gov. Little’s Executive Order on ‘vaccine passports’ to make sure that K-12 schools and universities cannot require vaccinations OR require mandatory testing,” McGeachin announced via Twitter. “I will continue to fight for your individual Liberty!”
On the same day, McGeachin also tried to get Major General Michael Garshak, the adjutant general of Idaho, to help her deploy the state’s National Guard troops to the southern border.
“As of Wednesday, my constitutional authority as Governor affords me the power of activating the Idaho National Guard,” she claimed in a letter to Garshak, per the Associated Press.
The official shot her down in a one-paragraph response, telling the lieutenant governor that he was “unaware of any request for Idaho National Guard assistance” from Texas or Arizona.
“As you are aware, the Idaho National Guard is not a law enforcement agency,” Garshak added.
The real governor was less than pleased about McGeachin’s playacting.
“I am in Texas performing my duties as the duly elected Governor of Idaho, and I have not authorized the Lt. Governor to act on my behalf,” Little said in a statement, alleging that the lieutenant governor had “unabashedly” asked Garshak about Idaho’s National Guard “before I even left the state.”
Little, who is in Texas wringing his hands over what the GOP claims to be President Joe Biden’s “border crisis,” accused McGeachin of “political grandstanding.”
“I will be rescinding and reversing any actions taken by the Lt. Governor when I return,” he vowed.
This wasn’t the only time McGeachin has hijacked the governor’s office in Little’s absence: She also put a ban on mask mandates in May while Little was away at the Republican Governors Association conference in Tennessee. The governor repealed the ban when he got back, accusing her of “tyranny.”
