Protests spread amid COVID-19 crisis against states' stay-at-home orders
Protesters call on governors to roll back what they say are the more arbitrary and restrictive measures; reaction on 'The Five.'
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In the latest of a wave of protests that have spread across the U.S., lawmakers and protesters who say Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is too strict are staging a drive-in protest in Harrisburg on Monday, following states like Michigan, North Carolina and others that have seen similar events.
The demonstration, planned for noon on Monday, comes after state Republican lawmakers passed a bill last week that would mandate the state follow federal guidelines offered by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on which workers should be considered "essential," rather than the more strict order the Democratic governor currently has in place. Wolf is expected to veto the bill, but protest organizers say they hope for a loosening of restrictions starting on May 1.
"We will have endured nearly 7 weeks of lock down when May 1st arrives and the end of these restrictions has remained indefinite," the organizers say in a release about the event. "Business owners are being forced to layoff employees while the unemployment system is failing those laid off and the economy free falls. Pennsylvanians deserve more than just endless extensions. It is not sustainable to continue the shut down as the economic and societal consequences may be irreversible."
A Facebook event promoting the demonstration encourages protesters at the state capital to stay in their vehicles and notes there will be both an Internet livestream and a radio broadcast of the rally itself so people will not need to get out of their cars to participate and hear the event's speakers.
One of the planned speakers Monday is Rep. Aaron Bernstine, a Republican from the western part of the state, who has said he is concerned about potentially overbearing orders from state governors infringing on peoples' rights. He will be joined by Republican Rep. Russ Diamond.
"I have serious concerns about what's happening with our basic constitutional rights. Additionally, I have serious concerns of what governors all across the country, both Republican and Democrat, are doing as it deals with making executive decisions and implementing these executive decisions that violate peoples' freedom of movement and rights that they have, their God-given rights," Bernstine told Fox News.
He is a proponent of the legislation that would have Pennsylvania follow the CISA guidelines on who to send to work, saying the bill would help begin sending some people back to work while still limiting the spread of the coronavirus.
"There's no reason that in Pennsylvania and across this country that we can't do both -- protect our lives and livelihoods," he said. "I think every job is essential to help people provide for their families."
Bernstine says, in his remarks planned for Monday, that he will criticize Wolf for connecting the reopening of Pennsylvania's economy to that of other states in the region, like New York, and asks him to come up with an independent plan for his state while emphasizing that he thinks it is possible to partially reopen the state while keeping Pennsylvanians safe.
Even though the hosts of the event, including Bernstine, are taking significant measures to ensure protesters can stay in their cars, not all of the anti-stay-at-home order protests have remained socially distant. Many protesters in Michigan exited their cars and disregarded social distancing protocols, prompting the state's Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to threaten to extend her stay-at-home order.
VIRGINIA BECOMES LATEST STATE TO SEE PROTESTS AGAINST CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN ORDERS
"When you see a political rally, that's what it was yesterday, a political rally like that where people aren't wearing masks and they're in close quarters and they're touching one another ... the odds are very high that they're spreading COVID-19 along with it," Whitmer said on MSNBC last week. "So it's that kind of irresponsible action that puts us in this situation where we might have to actually think about extending stay-at-home orders, which is supposedly what they're protesting."
Additionally, there are multiple organizers for the Monday rally, which have resulted in multiple Facebook events. There is the event connected to Bernstine, which is led by a man named Joel Underwood, who is the source of the press release advocating that Wolf begin easing social distancing restrictions on May 1. In the discussion for that event, Bernstine himself has implored protesters to "maintain social distancing and wear a mask to cover your nose/mouth. While this is not required, it will be important for us to be taken seriously." That is the event that is providing a livestream and a radio broadcast.
Separately, there is a Facebook event hosted by a man named Christopher Dorr, who the Washington Post has reported is connected to other protests in other states, including Minnesota. The language in that event description is far less polished than in the other.
"At this time, this is a VEHICLE rally, so you don't need to worry about social distancing if you stay in your vehicles!" it says. "If Governor Wolf decides to shut down peaceful traffic flow out of anger for 1st Amendment opposition to his agenda of economic destruction, we may be forced to park and walk."
Clel Baudler, a former Republican in the Iowa state legislature who is familiar with Dorr and his brother Ben, criticized the Dorrs.
"The brothers will do anything to fan the flames of a controversial issue, and maybe make a quick nickel," he told the Post. It also appears a third Dorr, named Lydia, is involved in the Pennsylvania effort, starting a Facebook group called "Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine." It's unclear what her relationship is to Ben and Christopher.
Bernstine told Fox News that the hosts of the two events have not been working together in planning the rally.
The more raucous protests against the state stay-at-home orders have drawn criticism from Democratic politicians, all the way up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
"No, not really," Pelosi said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" with host Chris Wallace when asked if she understood why people are protesting the orders. "Unfortunately, this -- what you see there is, you know, and again I’m respectful whatever people think they should say but the fact is this has to be science-based, evidence-based, data-based."
Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee on ABC's "This Week" Sunday explicitly called the anti-stay-at-home-order protests "illegal activity."
"I don't know any other way to characterize it, when we have an order from governors, both Republicans and Democrats, that basically are designed to protect people's health, literally their lives, to have a president of the United States basically encourage insubordination, to encourage illegal activity," he said. "These orders actually are the law of these states."
Inslee was referring to three Friday tweets from President Trump, who voiced support for rallygoers in Virginia, Minnesota and Michigan.
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The protests against the stay-at-home orders so far have in large part consisted of supporters of the president, often waving Trump flags and wearing "Make America Great Again" hats. The three states Trump tweeted about -- Virginia, Michigan and Minnesota -- also all have Democratic governors.
Worries from politicians like Inslee, Pelosi and others are unlikely, it seems, to convince supporters of the protests to stay home instead.
"You can't buy paint. You can't buy lawn fertilizer or grass seed. C'mon. All -- statewide? Really?" one protester in Michigan said Wednesday.
"Police officers in Ralegh declared protest a non essential activity," Townhall columnist Mike Adams tweeted about the North Carolina protest Tuesday. "We no longer have a first amendment right of peaceable assembly. This is why we have a second amendment."
