In recent days, angry protests against lockdown orders instituted amidst the Coronavirus pandemic have continued across the U.S., including in states like Michigan, which has been hard hit and whose stay-at-home order is slated to expire on May 15. Many of the Michigan demonstrators were armed and stormed the state capitol building, weapons in hand, which President Donald Trump responded to with praise. On Twitter, he suggested that Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer should strike some kind of deal with the demonstrators. This weekend on CNN, Whitmer and Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan both smacked down the protesters’ belligerence, insisting that the angry demonstrators, are, in fact, completely out of line.
Those behind the spectacles have insisted upon prioritizing economic productivity. They could be demonstrating — safely — in favor of something like increased government assistance for the unemployed or help with housing for families in-need. Instead, they’re insisting that a simple request for them to stay home because of the pandemic that has killed tens of thousands of Americans constitutes some kind of unconscionable affront to their civil liberties.
Whitmer told CNN host Jake Tapper:
‘We know people are not all happy about having to take this stay-home posture, and you know what? I’m not either. But the fact of the matter is, we have to listen to the epidemiologists and public health experts and displays like the one we saw at our capitol is not representative of who we are in Michigan. There were swastikas, and Confederate flags, and nooses, and people with assault rifles, and that’s a small group of people, when you think about that this is a state with almost ten million people, the vast majority of whom are doing the right thing.’
“We have to listen to the epidemiologist and health experts and displays like the one we saw at our capitol is not representative of who we are.” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reacts to protesters descending on her state’s capitol, including some who were armed #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/nz7kV3mHQU
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 3, 2020
Whitmer pointed out that, by all appearances, the social distancing measures that have been implemented in Michigan have helped keep the Coronavirus tolls in the state from getting even higher — and Michigan has already suffered more than 4,000 Coronavirus deaths. Whitmer added that no matter the partisan clamoring from certain demonstrators and their supporters, she will continue to work to protect the lives of Michiganders.
During the same CNN broadcast, Maryland’s Governor Hogan also derided the anti-lockdown protesters who emerged in his own state. At one recent rally, Maryland’s Republican Congressman Andy Harris even ludicrously compared Hogan’s enforcement of stay-at-home demands to “Communist China” and North Korea.
Hogan commented:
‘I think everybody has a right to protest and express their feelings, and a couple of dozen people did so yesterday, and they have every right to do that. Sadly, we had far more people die yesterday in Maryland than we had protesters.’
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on criticism from protestors around his state: "I think everybody has a right to protest and express their feelings. … Sadly, we had far more people die yesterday in Maryland than we had protesters" #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/TB2YPZ65f5
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 3, 2020
Hogan also mocked Harris’s “outrageous” contention that the stay-at-home order is on par with North Korea, suggesting that he confused North Korea with South Korea, the latter of which has taken swift and broad action to contain the virus and, importantly, been successful.
The commentary from Whitmer and Hogan contrasts dramatically with Trump’s own notion that the demonstrators are good people, which is reminiscent of his contention after right-wingers and neo-Nazis demonstrated in Virginia that some of those present were “very fine people.”
