Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, after coming under fire for refusing to have his COVID vaccines last year, is now speaking out against the leadership of his home state of California, particularly the lockdowns that resulted in businesses shutting down in 2020 and 2021.
"State's going to s**t but I'm hanging on," Rodgers told the upcoming Bill Maher's "Club Random" podcast according to a preview reported by SFGate.
The lockdowns, he said in the podcast airing Sunday, even affected small towns like his hometown of Chico, California, where all the small businesses are "gone."
Rodgers also spoke out against any laws that affect bodily autonomy, not only including vaccines but also abortions, and slammed AB 2098 in California, which once signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom will punish doctors who spread misinformation about the coronavirus.
"I think there’s a lot of people that believe that you should have your own decision-making on your own medical decisions," Rodgers said. "My thing is I have an issue with the hypocrisy in society in general. And I know you do as well. But abortion has been a hot topic, especially after Roe v. Wade got overturned and sent back to the states, or whatever. I don’t believe the government should have any control over what we do with our bodies."
Rodgers further told Maher that he doesn't consider himself a conservative. And he said that even though he leans toward being more pro-life in his stance on abortion, he doesn't want the government to tell a person what they can do with their body.
"I don’t want the government to tell me I can’t smoke a cigar, I can’t have a drink of alcohol, I can’t choose my own medical decisions," he said. "And if I’m a woman, don’t f***ing tell me what to do. Like whether or not I agree with what you decide to do, who cares? And the government should not have a decision that infringes upon my own personal freedoms."
Last summer, Rodgers told a reporter he had been immunized, but it was later revealed he hadn't been vaccinated and was subject to NFL protocols.
During that time, he said he is not an "anti-vax, flat-earther" but called himself a "critical thinker" who was basing his decision on vaccines based on science. He eventually was put on a 10-day quarantine and had to sit out one game last season.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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