The 4,000 protesters who jammed Michigan’s capital of Lansing last week could be responsible for extending the state’s tough stay-at-home policy by spreading the coronavirus, according to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The governor expressed dismay at last Wednesday’s “Operation Gridlock” protest of her orders. She cited people not wearing masks, standing 6 feet apart, and giving things to children “barehanded.”
She told a Washington Post Facebook Live interview with Robert Costa that they could have picked up the virus and taken it home to areas where it hasn’t shown up yet.
“We had a lot of people show up who were not wearing masks, who were not staying 6 feet apart. I saw adults handing things to children barehanded. And we know that this kind of activity flies in the face of all the best science, including the scientists that are standing up at the nightly briefing with the president,” she said in answering a question about President Trump’s tweet, “Liberate Michigan.”
Local reports put the crowd at more than 4,000 and that most stayed in their cars.
She said that while she respects the right to protest, the goal of ending the stay-at-home order was not achieved — and could have backfired.
Whitmer said, “To see this play out was really unfortunate, and I worry that while I respect their right to dissent and to demonstrate, so long as they are doing it responsibly and they are not endangering themselves or other people, I respect that.”
“But to see people come from across the state and converge, to stay that close to one another, to congregate like that, and then to go back into different parts of the state is very concerning because I know the purported rationale for it was they don’t like the stay-at-home order,” she said. “And yet, that activity might necessitate lengthening the stay-at-home order because they’ve brought COVID-19 into parts of the state where it wasn’t prevalent before. That’s going to be a problem for us.”
Whitmer said she asked Vice President Mike Pence this week to have the White House coronavirus team to reiterate the anti-virus rules.
She also told Costa that while she believes Joe Biden is a “wonderful guy,” his team has not asked for documents or papers that would be used to vet her for his vice presidential pick.
