US governors compared to Nazis
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The US coronavirus crisis took a sharp political turn on Friday as US President Donald Trump lashed out at four Democratic governors over their handling of the pandemic, after having conceded that states bear ultimate control of restrictions to contain the outbreak.
The Republican president targeted three swing states critical to his re-election bid – Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia -– where his conservative loyalists have mounted pressure campaigns challenging those governors’ stay-athome orders.
Amplifying a theme that his supporters have trumpeted this week in street protests at the state capitals of Lansing, St. Paul and Richmond, Trump issued a series of matching Twitter posts touting the slogans: “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA!”
Michigan has become a particular focus of agitation to relax social-distancing rules that rank among the strictest in the nation after Governor Gretchen Whitmer, widely seen as a potential running mate for presumed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, extended them through the end of April.
Protesters defying the restrictions from the steps of the state Capitol on Wednesday shouted “lock her up,” a chant that was a staple of Trump’s campaign rallies and originally referred to his 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Chants comparing Michigan’s governor to Hitler were among those heard at a protest of the state’s stay-at-home order by thousands of demonstrators.
The protesters, who had planned a major traffic jam around the state capital of Lansing, left their cars and ignored social-distancing rules.
The governor, Gretchen Whitmer, said later in interviews that the protest would likely spread the COVID-19 virus.
“They waved American flags, Trump flags and Confederate flags,” Michigan news source Mlive reported about the protesters. “They held up signs comparing Whitmer to Adolf Hitler. Chants included ‘recall Whitmer’ and ‘lock her up.’”
“Michiganders have every right to hold our government accountable, but this rhetoric is intolerable in any democratic society,” Noah Arbit, founder and chair of the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, said in a statement.
“It was particularly jarring to see these signs during the Passover holiday and only five days before Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
Arbit called on Michigan’s Republican Party chairwoman to disavow the comparison and apologize to Whitmer and Michigan Jews.
In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis became emotional during a news briefing about the coronavirus crisis in his state when a reporter said that the public has compared his stay-at-home order to Nazism.
“As a Jewish American who lost family in the Holocaust, I’m offended by any comparison to Nazism,” Polis said. “We act to save lives. The exact opposite of the slaughter of
6 million Jews and many gypsies and Catholics and gays and lesbians and Russians and so many others.”
His voice cracked and tears welled up in his eyes as he responded to the question.
Polis, a Democrat elected in 2018, is Colorado’s first Jewish governor, and was the first openly gay man elected governor of a state.
“We’re hearing a lot of reports around here,” the reporter said, “and I know I’ve seen some stuff going on statewide about neighbors reporting on other neighbors for not following the orders, seeing a lot of rebellion out here against your orders, which have been called tyrannical, against local health department orders, being equated to Nazism. How do you react to that? What do you say to those people who are clearly getting frustrated with this stay-athome order?”
Colorado House Minority Leader Patrick Neville also referred to Nazism during an interview to describe the stayat-home orders. In an interview on March 25, the day Polis issued the month-long order, Neville in an interview on a conservative radio program said that orders like that lead to a “Gestapo-like mentality.” (JTA)
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