Dem candidate who defended lockdowns in court now says they were a mistake

Even though we should be willing to cut Shapiro some slack for having to go to court to defend Wolf’s policies—one of his recent predecessors as Pennsylvania attorney general, Kathleen Kane, tried refusing to defend state laws she didn’t like and that didn’t end well for her—the rest of this doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. As the state’s top legal officer, Shapiro surely had a place at the table as the emergency orders and mandatory business closures were being hashed out.

So when Shapiro says “folks got it wrong,” he’s obviously trying to distance himself from his own culpability.

Even if he initially believed those extreme measures were necessary but later had a change of heart, he could have registered his objections with reporters at any time. And if he truly objected to defending those policies, he could have resigned his post, as at least one other member of Wolf’s administration did in response to lockdowns.

What’s really happening here is that Shapiro is being forced to respond to a line of attack from his gubernatorial opponent, Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R–Fayetteville). Trailing in the polls, Mastriano is hoping to make up ground by reminding Pennsylvanians just how much they disliked the state’s COVID policies and by tying Shapiro to those decisions. He’s likely trying to follow the same playbook as Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the Republican who scored an unexpected victory last year after pledging to end mask mandates and school closures.