Protestors at an anti-lockdown rally in Texas yelled 'fire Fauci' in a targeted chant against President Trump's top medical ad...
Protestors at an anti-lockdown rally in Texas yelled 'fire Fauci' in a targeted chant against President Trump's top medical advisor, as thousands of Americans defied stay-at-home and social distancing orders at rallies.
Meanwhile, anti-Trump activists launched counter-protests outside of the president's properties and laid body bags on the ground.
Hundreds of protestors gathered at the capitol building in Austin on Saturday to fight the state's coronavirus stay-at-home orders. The Texas protest was organized by Owen Shroyer and attended by Alex Jones from Infowars.
Cell phone footage from the protest showed people hoisting Trump 2020 flags and anti-lockdown signs into the air while calling for the dismissal of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top immunologist and infectious disease expert.
Since the global disease was first detected in Washington state, Dr. Fauci has become a leading public health expert in President Trump's coronavirus response.
Protestors in Austin, Texas, screamed 'fire Facui' in a targeted chant against Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top immunologist and infectious disease expert
Pictured: Infowars host Alex Jones, who helped organize the protest, marches with protesters during the "Reopen America" rally on Saturday
Fauci is often seen near Trump during daily briefings and COVID-19 press conferences where he updates the public on health developments.
The crowds chants come after Trump publicly showed support for the anti-lockdown protests and repeatedly contradicted Facui's public health recommendations.
Texas announced that it would be the first state to re-open amid the COVID-19 pandemic next week.
Retailers will be able to open again next Friday but on a to-go basis, meaning they must deliver to people's homes, cars or other places.
A woman who helped organize a COVID-19 anti-lockdown protest in New Jersey was charged for defying stay-at-home orders on Friday, authorities said.
The New Jersey Attorney General's office said Kim Pagan, of Toms River, was charged with violating emergency orders after she organized a protest against the state's lockdown in Trenton.
Gov. Phil Murphy first implemented the coronavirus emergency orders last month. New Jersey has at least 78,467 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3,840 deaths.
Video shared to Facebook by Central Jersey Libertarians showed a police officer writing summonses as protestors shout and honk their cars' horns near the statehouse.
Cell phone footage taken from the protest showed a New Jersey police officer writing summonses as upset protesters yelled and defiantly honked their car horns
On Friday, anti-lockdown protestors in Trenton, New Jersey, held a rally hitting back at Gov. Phil Murphy's coronavirus emergency lockdown orders that have closed nonessential businesses and mandated stay-at-home orders
'We have a right to peacefully protest,' one woman shouted, as the officer walked by a car window that reads 'playdemic.'
State stay-at-home protests also popped up in a Walmart parking lot in Hamilton. Protesters arrived with signs, American flags and wrote anti-lockdown messages on car windows, NBC New York reports.
One window read: 'MURPHY'S LAW WORSE THAN COVID-19.'
Gov. Murphy said New Jersey's coronavirus curve has not yet plateaued.
He said: 'Even if the rate of our increase is lessening, which it's hard to argue it hasn't over the past week, we have two realities that we cannot escape. One is it is still increasing.
'So with all due respect to this notion that we've found some plateau, we're not at any plateau.'
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (pictured) instated COVID-19 lockdown orders last week as he told residents cases have not yet plateaued
In recent days, thousands of Americans have flooded the streets with anti-lockdown protests as President Donald Trump voiced his support to 'liberate' states on Twitter.
Protests have appeared in several states like Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, Virginia, Michigan, Florida, California, Kentucky, Ohio, North Carolina and Minnesota.
A few hundred demonstrators cheered and waved signs outside the New Hampshire State House on Saturday during a call to reopen the state, the Associated Press reported.
Members of the crowd carried signs with slogans such as 'Live Free or Die,' the state's motto. Others included 'Restore Jobs' and 'Kiss My Constitution.'
One demonstrator, talk show host Ian Freeman, said the government was guilty of fear-mongering over the state of the virus, and it was time to restore individual rights.
Pictured: Members of the Boogaloo Movement, attend a demonstration against the lockdown over concern about COVID-19 at the State House
'Even if the virus were 10 times as dangerous as it is, I still wouldn't stay inside my home. I'd rather take the risk and be a free person,' he said.
New Hampshire has had nearly 1,300 cases of the virus and more than three dozens deaths through Friday.
'ReOpen Maryland', an anti-lockdown group, protested the state orders Saturday in downtown Annapolis with a procession of vehicles.
The Capital Gazette reported that most protestors remained in their cars - as to keep with social distancing guidelines - and held signs out the window.
The group demanded in an online petition that Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan should re-open businesses, religious facilities and schools.
State Republican delegates pushed back at Hogan's mandates in a letter Saturday where they asked he relaxed restrictions in certain regions.
'We fundamentally believe that what works in one region of the state may not be applicable to others,” members of the House of Delegates Republican,' the letter read.
Pictured: Members of the Boogaloo Movement, attend a demonstration against the lockdown over concern about COVID-19 at the State House in Annapolis
'ReOpen Maryland', an anti-lockdown group, protested the state orders Saturday in downtown Annapolis with a procession of vehicles
The Republican officials also asked that 'local review boards' be created to watchdog county health officers' power and to end the ban on recreational activities like boating.
Spokesperson Mike Ricci responded on behalf of Hogan and said the suggestions were appreciated.
'We’re all on the same page: we want to get Maryland open again as soon as it is safe,' he said. 'We appreciate these ideas, and will continue coordinating with legislators as the governor prepares to unveil the state’s roadmap to recovery.'
The Virginia capitol building saw three anti-lockdown groups join forces on Thursday morning to hit back at lockdown orders. Gov. Ralph Northam closed nonessential businesses until May 8.
Protester Marco Caceres told NBC 12: 'Who is he to determine what is essential in our society and what is not? I believe the liquor stores are open. Is that essential? There are a lot of things that are open that many people don’t consider essential.
Pictured: A demonstrator holds a sign at the Virginia State Capitol on Thursday while protesting the coronavirus lockdown
'You’re trying to supposedly cure a problem but you’re doing more damage in my opinion than you are trying to cure the problem by forcing people to stay in their homes, not be able to earn a living, you know isolation kills, too.'
Marco Caceres: 'You’re trying to supposedly cure a problem but you’re doing more damage in my opinion than you are trying to cure the problem by forcing people to stay in their homes, not be able to earn a living, you know isolation kills, too'
Three anti-lockdown groups in Virginia banded together to protest the state's stay-at-home orders on Friday
Like other state protestors, the Virginians forwent face masks and gloves during the rally.
'The reason why I’m not wearing a mask is that I’m not going to have someone tell me I have to,' said protester Benjamin Wright.
'It seems ridiculous to me that a lot of businesses are closed. A lot of my friends who own their businesses are in risk of going out of business over this.'
Pictured: Demonstrators, using simulated body bags for props, protest President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Chicago, Illinois
Anti-Trump activists rallied in front of Trump properties across the country with body bags meant to represent the lives lost due to Trump's outbreak response.
A group of protestors gathered in Chicago, Illinois, on Saturday with at least seven makeshift body bags.
Further west, activists with Refuse Fascism also put fake body bags in front of Trump International Hotel & Tower New York to protest Trump.
Some signs placed atop the body bags read 'This represents 1000+ health care workers who died of COVID-19' and 'This represents immigrants who died in ICE custody.'
One body bag used in the Chicago anti-Trump protest had a sign that read 'humanity first! Trump: restore funding to WHO'
Activists with Refuse Fascism protested President Trump's COVID-19 response in front of Trump International Hotel & Tower New York
One body placed in front of Trump International Hotel & Tower New York read 'This represents 1000+ health care workers who died of COVID-19'
President Trump doubled down on his tweets to 'LIBERATE' Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia, telling reporters Friday evening that the Democratic governors in those states went too far - and the protesters were treated badly.
'You could get the same result out of doing a little bit less,' Trump said of the stay at home orders in those three states. 'You know, they've been treated a little bit rough,' he said of those protesting against the lockdowns, who were often photographed wearing pro-Trump paraphernalia.
Trump admitted that he singled out Virginia because the state's governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, had signed a new gun control law.
President Trump doubled down on his tweets to 'LIBERATE' Michigan, Virginia and Minnesota on Friday saying he thought protesters who were mad about the Democratic governors' stay at home orders were 'treated a little bit rough'
'They want to take their guns away, they want to take their guns away,' the president said during the Friday press briefing. 'If he were a Republican he would be under siege,' Trump said.
Trump called the new Virginia gun laws 'a horrible thing' and also reminded his audience of Northam's previous scandal - that he had dressed up in blackface, which appeared in a yearbook.
'And he's a governor under a cloud to start off with,' Trump said.
Trump made himself the star of the 'lockdown rebellion' Friday - which has pit governors against their constituents - by tweeting 'LIBERATE Minnesota' and then adding Michigan and Virginia to the list of states that should be freed.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee launched a scathing condemnation of Trump over his tweets, accusing him of 'fomenting domestic rebellion.'
A reporter asked Trump about Inslee's comments at the briefing, which got the president going on Northam and Virginia's new gun laws.
At the briefing, Trump particularly went after Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, saying the new Virginia laws Northam signed into law were a 'horrible thing'
Inslee, whose state had the first U.S. case of coronavirus, the first deaths, and the first restrictions, launched a lengthy broadside against Trump, calling his tweets 'unhinged rantings,' and accusing him of risking violence.
Inslee was called a 'snake' by Trump, who mocked his failed presidential run, during an earlier clash with governors but the Washington Democrat's lengthy attack came hours after New York's Andrew Cuomo unloaded on Trump on live television, mocking his demand for gratitude for federal help and saying: 'Thank you for doing your job.'
Governors have increasingly clashed with Trump, particularly after his head-snapping week which saw him first proclaim 'total authority' to decide on re-opening the country, then a complete volte-face to saying states 'call the shots.'
The Washington governor said: 'The president's statements this morning encourage illegal and dangerous acts.
'He is putting millions of people in danger of contracting COVID-19. His unhinged rantings and calls for people to 'liberate' states could also lead to violence.'
He called the tweets 'fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies' and said they were in contrast to the 'sensible' guidelines Trump had unveiled Thursday on re-opening the economy.
But he suggested Trump was not the master of the plan, saying 'Trump slowly read his script,' and added: 'Less than 24 hours later, the president is off the rails. He's not quoting scientists and doctors but spewing dangerous, anti-democratic rhetoric.'
How Inslee went after Trump - scroll down to read his full statement
The president began by tweeting 'LIBERATE MINNESOTA!' as protesters gathered at the home of the Democratic governor Friday morning - then followed by offering the same message in Michigan
Then the president said that Michigan and Virginia, two more states under Democratic control, should also be liberated, adding in Virginia that the 2nd Amendment needed to be 'saved'
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