“How many covid shots did you take?” Hutchinson asked.
“Zero,” Carlson responded to a round of applause from the audience.
“I can see that he backed down when I asked him that question,” said Carlson, a former Fox News host and longtime vaccine skeptic. “And I honestly don’t think you should ask people about their health care. But that became a matter of public policy, and I think the whole country should pause and assess: ‘What did we just go through and how do we feel about it now?’” So it’s a very simple question.»
Before confirming that he had been vaccinated, Hutchinson touted his opposition to vaccination mandates as governor of Arkansas, noting a law he signed which banned vaccination mandates among government employees. In 2021, Hutchinson too passed a law allow employees to opt out of company vaccination requirements, though he called the debate over the opt-out bill “detrimental to our goal of increasing vaccination rates in Arkansas.”
Hutchinson did not address Carlson’s claim that «a lot of people were hurt» by the vaccination mandates, but instead discussed his efforts to keep schools and small businesses open and avoid stay-at-home orders during his tenure as governor.