Idaho lawmakers posted a viral video slamming coronavirus restrictions while committing to protect “unalienable rights.”
Several Idaho lawmakers, including the state’s lieutenant governor, expressed opposition to coronavirus restrictions as a result of Gov. Brad Little’s emergency orders in a viral video posted by the Idaho Freedom Foundation.
“We recognize that all of us by nature are free and equal and have certain unalienable rights,” Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin said in the video while holding the Bible and a gun in a van adorned with an American flag.
“Among which are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing happiness and securing safety,” McGeachin added while reaching for and displaying a firearm and placing it above the Bible.
Republican state Reps. Tammy Nichols, Dorothy Moon, Bryan Zollinger, Christy Zito, Chad Christensen, Priscilla Giddings, Tony Wisniewski, Heather Scott, Ron Nate, and Karey Hanks also appeared in the video, which was titled “We the people of Idaho reaffirm our commitment to freedom.”
“We further resolve that any order issued in the future will be ignored,” Scott states in the video, with the exception of those that uphold their “God-given rights,” Nate concludes.
Several of the politicians lamented the emergency declarations and restrictions imposed on residents of the state and argued that rights have been violated.
“The fact that a pandemic may or may not be occurring changes nothing about the meaning or intent of the state constitution and the preservation of our inalienable rights,” Hanks said in the video.
“Despite this being a direct contravention of our state’s founding principles, state and local officials have, for months, denied the people of our state basic and fundamental rights by issuing a long procession of emergency orders and edicts,” Zito added.
Those who appeared in the video have joined hundreds of Idaho residents in signing a declaration to “reaffirm our solemn commitment to the foundational principles that have made America the greatest country in the world.” That declaration, according to the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s website, was ratified on Oct. 1.
Earlier this week, Idaho’s Democratic governor moved the state backward and reentered “Stage 3” of coronavirus restrictions due to a recent surge in positive tests.
