Former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told Breitbart News it’s time to reopen Wisconsin in an exclusive interview Friday.

Walker, who was defeated by Gov. Tony Evers in 2018, said he’s concerned about the economy during the state-mandated shutdown, not just in the short-term, but the long-term, as well.

“I get the fear that people have but there’s also a lot of frustration. People don’t know what to believe, what the facts are. It keeps changing all the time,” he said.

Walker said he believes it’s time to reopen the state and he has encouraged businesses to come up with a plan to “safely” reopen.

“Not as a requirement of government, but I think to get employees back” is going to be a challenge, he said.

“I think this is one of those where the private sector, in many cases, knows better,” Walker said, adding if workers and customers don’t feel safe, “it doesn’t matter what date you say you’re going to reopen, it’s not going to happen.”

“Let’s stop suspending common sense,” he said.

Walker said he wasn’t sure if Evers’ decisions are political as much as “he doesn’t know what to do,” and said he questioned why Evers would extend the shutdown order on April 16th until May 26th “without looking at what the data is for the next couple of weeks.”

He said a “perfect cure” may not come any time soon, so “how do we logically stagger our way back into reopening.”

“I feel a lot of governors are hiding their head under the bed hoping this will all just go away, and it won’t,” he cautioned.

Walker believes if elected officials were more clear and forthcoming about what actions were necessary and why, the public would have accepted it and “be in a spot where we can keep things moving forward.”

“Explain why things are happening, explain how we can ease back into the economy, ask people to play their part,” he said.

“There’s no reason other parts of the economy can’t open sooner rather than later.”

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter and like him on Facebook.