Michigan’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer defied her own controversial social distancing rules while attending a Detroit civil rights protest Thursday. The one came just days after the governor expressed a “high level of concern” that such mass gatherings could spread coronavirus.
Whitmer, who implemented some of the strictest shutdown policies in the country in response to the pandemic, did not adhere to social distancing rules as she joined hundreds in a march from Highland Park to Detroit’s Wayne State University. The Democrat’s latest order, “phase four” of the state’s coronavirus response, allows for outdoor events “so long as people maintain six feet of distance from one another and the assemblage consists of no more than 100 people.”
Whitmer, a potential Democratic vice presidential candidate, previously condemned those protesting her controversial stay-at-home orders, saying “they are not staying six feet apart and then they go back home into communities and the risk of perpetuating the spread of COVID-19 is real.” Michigan Freedom Fund executive director Tony Daunt, who cosponsored April’s “Operation Gridlock” protest, said it was “particularly rich” that Whitmer was “not engaging in social distancing given the statements she made about earlier protests.”
At a Monday press conference, Whitmer expressed a “high level of concern” that large protests could expedite the spread of the virus, which has killed nearly 5,600 in the state. Ingham County health officer Linda Vail echoed her uneasiness, saying she was “concerned” that “the whole social distancing thing wasn’t happening” at protests. – READ MORE
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