Protesters on Thursday gathered in front of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) home in Lansing to call on her to reopen the state amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Gretchen Whitmer is tyranny, this is like a third world country. It’s like V for Vendetta and Idiocracy hooked up and they produced this baby that is 2020,” Brandon Hall, the organizer of the event, told Up North Live. “We also want to ask her why she does not follow her own order and ‘Stay Home, Stay Safe’?”
Rob Cortis and the Trump Unity Bridge, a traveling float featuring music, participated in the protest.
Michigan, which is one of the states hardest-hit by the virus, has imposed one of the country’s strictest stay-at-home mandates.
Last Wednesday dozens of protesters swarmed the statehouse in Lansing, Mich., to demand an end to the state’s stay-at-home order. That protest was led by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and supported by conservative lawmakers.
“When you see a political rally — that’s what it was yesterday — a political rally where people aren’t wearing masks and they’re in close quarters and they’re touching one another, you know that that’s precisely what makes this kind of disease drag out and expose more people,” Whitmer said last Thursday.
This week The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that some of the groups organizing protests against shutdowns are funding by the Convention of States, a group of conservative mega-donors. The group has previously backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a staunch Trump ally who has pushed for an early end to stay-at-home measures.