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Whitmer: Protests at Capitol 'make it likelier' stay-at-home will be extended

Posted at 1:18 PM, May 13, 2020
and last updated 2020-05-14 05:18:21-04

(WXYZ) — Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said recent protests at the state Capitol will make staying at home longer even likelier.

In an appearance on The View, Whitmer was asked about the Trump administration's response to the protests.

"These protests, in a perverse way, make it likelier we're going to have to stay in a stay-home posture," Whitmer said. "The whole point of them supposedly is that they don't want to be doing that."

"These have been, really, political rallies, where people come with Confederate flags and Nazi symbolism and calling for violence. This is not appropriate in a global pandemic, but it's certainly not an exercise of democratic principles, where we have free speech."

"This is calls to violence," she said. "This is racist and misogynistic."

During the interview, she defended her stay-at-home order, saying the protests "undermine the effort."

“While I respect people’s right to dissent, they need to do it in a way that is responsible and does not put others at risk.”

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