“Anti-Mask Guv’s Grandmother Died in Nursing Home Ravaged by Covid,” was the lurid headline on an article in the liberal Daily Beast.

The “guv” is of course Kristi Noem of South Dakota, whose response to COVID (give people as much information and as much ability to decide for themselves as possible) has rocked the mainstream media.

The beastly story, by Michael Daly, began:

On Monday, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem buried her grandmother, who was among 13 to die over a two-week period at a top-rated nursing home swept by COVID-19.

The 98-year-old grandmother, Aldys Arnold, is said by Noem’s office to have tested negative for the virus, though no cause of death was given. The other 12 of the 13 deaths between Nov. 14 and Nov. 28 at the Estelline Nursing Home are described by the administrator, Mike Ward, as “COVID-related.”

“All but one,” Ward told The Daily Beast.

Often, when somebody is lucky enough to have attained the grand age of 98 dies, the cause can be rightly considered as old age and the complications thereof. But Mrs. Arnold’s death is simply a way to get at her granddaughter.

Daly continues:

But one less is still a dozen COVID deaths in a short period in one small facility. The number makes clear the lunacy of Noem’s downplaying of the pandemic and her continued refusal to impose a statewide mask mandate.

“I’ve always taken #COVID19 very seriously, but South Dakota trusted our citizens to exercise their personal responsibility to keep themselves and their loved-ones safe,” Noem tweeted back in July.

But the report from the Estelline Nursing Home, in a town of the same name, made clear that South Dakotans are anything but safe. Ward confirmed that along with the deaths, all but two of the surviving 38 residents and at least 16 of the staff had tested positive.

The two most recent deaths were on Saturday and helped raise the statewide daily total to 54, a record for South Dakota, which has fewer than 1 million people.

Noem remained fixated on livelihoods rather than lives and chose to tweet that day about the importance of supporting small businesses by shopping.

“Fixated on the livelihoods” of those who live in South Dakota—just how heartless can you be? I’ll bet that the owner of Mac’s Public House in Staten Island wishes his governor were more concerned with people’s “livelihoods.” As a result of re-opening his pub, one of the owners was handcuffed and arrested. Governor Cuomo, the darling of shutdown supporters, has divided Staten Island into two parts—half open for business and half closed, so it is possible to walk to open eateries a few blocks from Mac’s.

Glad to say there was pushback against the Daily Beast article. Anders Hagstrom of the Daily Caller nailed it in a tweet: “COVID has politicized death to such an extent that it’s acceptable to attack someone for having their grandmother die. And Noem’s grandmother didn’t even have coronavirus. Despicable,” Hagstrom wrote.

We send our condolences to Governor Noem and her family.