Fox News Hosts Rally Around Right Wing Stay-At-Home Order Protesters

Protests, most of them planned by conservative action groups, have broken out in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Utah, and North Carolina — with demonstrators picketing in front of state Capitol buildings, shouting at government officials, causing traffic jams —  railing against social distancing guidelines they say go too far.

“Time to get your freedom back,” Ingraham, host of “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News, tweeted Wednesday in response to a tweet showing people protesting against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order, which drew thousands of people, the largest gathering so far.

Another Fox News host, Jeanine Pirro, said on Sean Hannity’s show that health officials “overblew” how many people were going to die from the virus and were now forcing people to stay home; she added that the “American spirit is too strong” to stay at home and that protests were going to happen “all over the country.”

Fox News host Tucker Carlson called Whitmer “mindless and authoritarian” for instituting her state’s stay-at-home order and thanked the people protesting it: “Thank you for exercising your constitutionally protected rights as an American. Bless you.”

Governors in charge of the guidelines argue that the strict social distancing guidelines are necessary to slow the spread of the virus and save lives, even if the economy suffers and some civil liberties are curbed as a result; health officials have backed up these restrictions, and point to data showing that stay-at-home orders have lowered the rate of infection. 

Still, the protesters feel the orders should not come at the expense of business or certain freedoms; some have also criticized governors for deeming certain businesses essential, while leaving out others.