New Mexico Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce says Democrats are calling critics of their close-small-businesses strategy for the Chinese coronavirus crisis a “death cult,” though their agenda puts more Americans at risk.

In an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Saturday, Pearce called out Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s (D) spokesperson who called her critics a “death cult” in a viral comment online.

You don't have to ask the death cult their opinion or publish their quotes. False equivalence now is actually life or death. There is no "both sides" to this. There is one group preaching accelerated illness & death because they "love" "business" & if you can't see through that? — Tripp Stelnicki (@trippstelnicki) April 16, 2020

Pearce said Grisham’s strategy, forcing small businesses to close while giant multinational corporate stores owned by out-of-state billionaires are allowed to stay open, puts Americans at a much greater risk of contracting the coronavirus.

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“[Tripp Stelnicki] has refused to even address it … they have proven to be not very adept, not very agile here in their dealing with this issue — both the issue of whether or not to open and then if any criticism comes up, they begin to hunker down and fire off wild shots,” Pearce said.

“That’s what they did calling anybody that says we want to consider things rationally, they say it’s a ‘death cult,'” Pearce continued. “Actually, if you were to look at it closely, they’re the ones that are promoting greater access to the virus by allowing the big box stores to take all of the customers.”

Pearce said Grisham’s response to the coronavirus has been effectively to give giant multinational corporate chains a monopoly over the market — allowing them to stay open with some limitations while forcing small businesses to close.

“You know I never used to see the kind of cars in my hometown that I see. I was counting yesterday, each row had 25 cars in it,” Pearce said. “You have to park in number 26 and walk all that way in and you’re telling me that’s not congestion that is ripe for passing the disease along.”

“And yet small businesses are starving out,” Pearce said. “More than half of the businesses in New Mexico are small businesses and half of those are owned by women, 25 percent by minorities. So [Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham] is hurting the very groups that are struggling to get economic parity with the rest of the country. It doesn’t make any rational sense.”

Local media outlets have reported that New Mexico’s small business owners are furious with how Grisham has handled the coronavirus crisis. In particular, small businesses that sell the same products as giant multinational corporate chains have said Grisham’s restrictions are “grossly unfair.”

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.