By Hunter Walker White House Correspondent,Yahoo News—
A Michigan lawmaker returned to the state Capitol on Wednesday with an armed security detail following a coronavirus lockdown protest at the building last week attended by white supremacists and militia groups.
Rep. Sarah Anthony, a Democrat whose district is in the capital city, Lansing, told Yahoo News in an interview that her security detail, made up of local black and Latino activists, came together because the armed protesters bearing white supremacist symbols represented a “different level of terror.”
According to Anthony, the April 30 protest was different from prior coronavirus protests that have occurred at the Capitol in recent weeks because many of the demonstrators stormed inside the building and were armed. Anthony also said some of the protesters “had Confederate flags and swastikas,” which she found “extraordinarily triggering for me as an African-American woman.”
“It was a very intimidating environment,” Anthony said. “I’ve just never experienced being so frightened and so intimidated in my life.”
Anthony posted a video to Facebook, which she filmed as the protests raged outside. Members of her community responded and, when Anthony returned to the Capitol on Wednesday for the first time since the demonstration, she was escorted by a group of six black and Latino activists who carried their own guns.
Large conservative organizations have helped back the anti-lockdown demonstrations, which have taken place in at least 18 states around the country. Though the demonstrations are focused on pressing to lift coronavirus safety measures in order to boost economic activity, they have also attracted a wide variety of groups dedicated to other causes, including militia members, gun-rights activists and white supremacists.
Even as the White House has issued social distancing guidelines and described the measures as necessary, President Trump has expressed support for the protests, calling the demonstrators “very good people” and urging Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to “make a deal” with them.
- Associated Press
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