House Speaker Nancy Pelosi characterized President Trump’s support of anti-lockdown protesters in Michigan as “cheering people on” with guns and swastikas.
“The fact is, if you undermine science, if you underfund testing, if you exaggerate the opportunity that it’s out there for the economy at the risk of people dying, that’s not a plan,” Pelosi told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday. “Death is not an economic motivator stimulus. So why are we going down that path? Why don’t we — you know, everyone wants to get out, and we think to unlock the lockdown is to test, trace, and treat as well as isolate and social distancing.”
“And when the science tells us that we can do something differently or to be socially distant wearing your mask, doing things in a way that is appropriate. But not cheering people on going with guns and swastikas to the legislature in Michigan and saying, ‘These are really good people.’”
Hundreds of protesters swarmed the state capital building in Lansing, Michigan, last week to voice their displeasure with the state’s lockdown measures that have left almost 1 million Michiganders without work.
Trump referred to the protesters as “very good people” and urged Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer “to make a deal” with them.
Whitmer later spoke with CNN’s Jake Tapper about the unsubstantiated claim, echoed by Pelosi, that the anti-lockdown protesters in Michigan are made up of neo-Nazis.
What we must do – what science tells us we must do – is focus on expanding testing & contact tracing. That is the only way we can safely reopen our economy. #AMR #FamiliesFirst pic.twitter.com/ijp4fAAcxM
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) May 6, 2020
