Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday rebuked Democratic leaders for attending protests amid statewide shutdowns after months of discouraging large public gatherings.
McConnell, in a speech delivered on the Senate floor, warned that since Democratic governors, mayors, and other top officials began encouraging and participating in the protests over the death of George Floyd, “our national life during this pandemic has slid toward a double standard.”
“Many Americans feel they’ve just seen those fastidious regulations and that puritanical zeal disappear in an instant because a new cause has emerged that powerful people agree with,” McConnell said. “A month ago, small protest demonstrations were widely condemned as reckless and selfish. Now, massive rallies that fill entire cities are not just praised, but in fact, are called especially brave because of the exact same health risks that brought condemnation when the cause was different.”
McConnell singled out Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in particular for condemnation. While praising people supporting a need for racial justice, McConnell said that, by allowing exceptions for protesters, leaders were engendering mistrust in the people whose businesses failed or who suffered from not being able to go to church during the spring.
“The rights of free speech, free assembly, and the free exercise of religion are all First Amendment rights,” McConnell said. “They have the same constitutional pedigree. But apparently, while protests are now permissible, prayer is still too dangerous. Politicians are now picking and choosing within the First Amendment itself.”
Citing Justin Walker, a judge in Louisville who ruled that churches should be allowed to hold drive-in services on Easter, McConnell said that the needs of religious people should never be “shoved into second class.”
“It is hard to see any rational set of rules by which mass protests should continue to be applauded but small, careful religious services should continue to be banned,” he said. “These prominent Democrats are free to let social protest outrank religion in their own consciences, if they choose. But they do not get to impose their ranking on everyone else.”
McConnell is joining a series of other Republican lawmakers who have leveled criticism at Democrats who spoke out against large gatherings during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, but now are participating in protests.
Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton tweeted a similar message on Tuesday, calling out governors who imposed harsh stay-at-home orders but have broken them to join protesters.
“Democratic governors encouraged — and often participated in — mass protests that didn’t follow their own social distance guidelines,” the Republican tweeted. “How can they continue to discriminate against churches trying to safely reopen?”
