Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick thinks grandparents should be willing to sacrifice their lives to save the economy

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) seems to think that if given the choice, Americans 70 and over would be willing to risk getting coronavirus and possibly dying if it means stores re-open and the economy rebounds.

On Fox News Monday night, Patrick lamented not being asked how he would balance protecting some of the people most at-risk for contracting coronavirus — adults 65 and over — while keeping businesses up and running. "No one reached out to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?" he said. "If that's the exchange, I'm all in."

The 69-year-old kept going, saying that "those of us who are 70 plus, we'll take care of ourselves, but don't sacrifice the country." This declaration "doesn't make me noble or brave or anything like that," Patrick said, "I just think there's lots of grandparents out there like me ... what we all care about and what we love more than anything are those children and I want to live smart and see through this, but I don't want the whole country to be sacrificed, and that's what I see."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Host Tucker Carlson asked Patrick for clarification, wanting to make sure he really was saying that "this disease could take your life, but that's not the scariest thing to you, there's something that would be worse than dying." Patrick paused, possibly realizing that he just volunteered as tribute in The Hunger Games: Coronavirus Edition, then responded, "Yeah." Watch the video below. Catherine Garcia