Trump calls protesters against stay-at-home
orders 'very responsible'
President tweeted that Minnesota, Michigan and
Virginia should be ‘liberated’ after demonstrations against social distancing
David Smith
in Washington
@smithinamerica
Sat 18 Apr
2020 01.56 BSTFirst published on Fri 17 Apr 2020 18.51 BST
Donald
Trump has posted highly incendiary tweets stoking protests against physical
distancing and other coronavirus stay-at-home measures in three states led by
Democratic governors.
“LIBERATE
MINNESOTA!” the US president wrote in capital letters on Friday. “LIBERATE
MICHIGAN!”
He followed
up with a third tweet: “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment.
It is under siege!” – a reference to Virginia’s governor, Ralph Northam, last
week signing into law new measures on gun control.
Trump has
repeatedly ignored his own entreaty to put partisan politics aside during the
coronavirus pandemic. His latest provocative interventions followed
demonstrations against stay-at-home orders in Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina,
Virginia and other states that have drawn elements of the far right.
Some
protesters have carried guns, waved Trump and Confederate flags and sought to
frame the debate as a defence of constitutional freedoms. They have been egged
on by conservative media hosts such as Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro, who said:
“What happened in Lansing [Michigan] today, God bless them: it’s going to
happen all over the country.”
At Friday’s
White House coronavirus taskforce briefing, Trump played down fears that by
crowding together, the protesters themselves could spread the Covid-19 illness.
“These are people expressing their views,” he told reporters. “I see where they
are and I see the way they’re working. They seem to be very responsible people
to me, but they’ve been treated a little bit rough.”
In 2017 the
president was condemned for reacting to a deadly clash between white
nationalists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, by observing
that there “were very fine people on both sides”.
On Friday,
Trump also stood by his criticism of the Democratic governors, even though they
are following his own federal guidelines. “I think some things are too tough,”
he said. “And if you look at some of the states you just mentioned, it’s too
tough, not only in reference to this but what they’ve done in Virginia with
respect to the second amendment is just a horrible thing ... When you see what
other states have done, I think I feel very comfortable.”
Asked if he
believed Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia should lift their stay-at-home
orders, the president added: “I think elements of what they’ve done are too
much, just too much ... What they’ve done in Virginia is just incredible.”
Trump,
known to watch Fox News closely, has offered mixed messages. On Monday he
claimed “total” authority to order an end to the stay-at-home measures, but on
Thursday issued phased “guidelines” that passed the buck to governors to make
decisions on the ground about when and how to reopen. His tweets on Friday
appeared to undercut his own experts’ warnings and drew sharp criticism.
Jay Inslee,
the Democratic governor of Washington, tweeted in response: “The president’s
statements this morning encourage illegal and dangerous acts. He is putting
millions of people in danger of contracting Covid-19. His unhinged rantings and
calls for people to ‘liberate’ states could also lead to violence. We’ve seen
it before.”
Beto
O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman who like Inslee ran for the Democratic
nomination, said: “Republicans will turn a blind eye [and] too many in the
press will focus on ‘tone’. But history books will say: in April of 2020, when
the pandemic had already claimed 35,000 lives, the president of the United
States incited people to storm their statehouses with AR-15s and AK-47s.”
Michigan
has taken big hits in both coronavirus cases and job losses and will be a
critical battleground state in the presidential election. Wednesday’s
“Operation Gridlock”, a demonstration against strict stay-at-home policies
ordered by Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, attracted the Proud Boys and
other far-right groups who have been present at pro-Trump and gun rights
rallies in Michigan.
Most
protesters stayed in their vehicles and circled the state capitol building in
Lansing, but a small group stood on the capitol steps to flout physical
distancing guidelines. They brandished signs that included “Trump/Pence”,
“Recall Whitmer”, “Heil Whitmer” and “Stop the Tyranny”, and briefly chanting
“Lock her up!”, echoing Trump campaign rallies’ targeting of Hillary Clinton.
Whitmer,
who dismissed the stunt as “essentially a political rally”, has emerged as a
possible a running mate for the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.
Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said at an
online “Women for Trump” event Whitmer had “turned this crisis into a platform
to run for vice-president”.
The
protests have earned comparisons with the Tea Party movement of a decade ago
and more are expected in coming days, with the tension between public health
and economic reopening viewed through an increasingly partisan lens.
The
Washington Post reported: “Uncertainty and fear over the economic impact of
stay-at-home orders is fueling a sort of culture war between conservatives,
whose political strength now comes from rural America, right now less affected
by the virus, and liberals, whose urban strongholds have been most affected by
it.”
Last
Saturday, for example, the Republican senator Ted Cruz, a Trump ally, tweeted
that he was going to the beach with his children. “Fortunately, I live in Texas
– where we protect public safety, but aren’t authoritarian zealots – so they
won’t arrest me!” he wrote.
According
to Pew Research, 81% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say their
greater concern is that governments will lift these restrictions too quickly.
About half (51%) of Republicans and Republican leaners say their bigger concern
is that state governments will act too quickly.
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