Michigan Gov. Whitmer: Lockdown protests are ‘racist and misogynistic’

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Wednesday that the lockdown protests are “racist and misogynistic” and called on those with a platform to discourage the demonstrators.

Whitmer told ABC’s “The View” that the protests are “really political” as demonstrators have brought nooses, Confederate flags and Nazi symbolism. 

“This is not appropriate in a global pandemic,” she said. “But it’s certainly not an exercise of democratic principles where we have free speech. This is calls to violence. This is racist and misogynistic.”

The Michigan governor requested that those with a platform use it to promote the practices issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and “to stop encouraging this behavior because it only makes it that much more precarious for us to try to reengage our economy.”

She said the protests will make it “likelier” that residents will have to stay home for longer to prevent the spread of coronavirus. 

“The whole point of them supposedly is that they don’t want to be doing that,” she said. “And that is why I’m asking anyone with a platform to call on people to do the right thing.”

Protests have broken out against Whitmer’s stay-at-home order over the past month as people are demanding the state economy and businesses reopen. The governor extended the state’s stay-at-home order last week to last until May 28 from the previous deadline of May 15. 

President Trump has tweeted in support of the protesters, including calling them “very good people” earlier this month.

Last week, Whitmer said the anti-stay-at-home protests were depicting “some of the worst racism and awful parts of our history.” 

Michigan has recorded 48,021 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 4,674 deaths, according to the state health department.