>> I see those kind of protesters with guns.
And I understand that for a lot of people watching this show that may seem very foreign
and it may seem violent.
But it's perfectly normal to me and it's perfectly legal in the states that they did it in and
it's a culture symbol.
>> That was Meghan McCain on the view today talking about the armed protesters who have
shown up in various states throughout the country in order to express their disdain
for the stay-at-home orders that their governors have issued.
Now, we're seeing Trump supporters protesting the stay-at-home orders all throughout the
country.
And even though it appears as though this is the popular opinion of people on the right,
the truth is that the vast majority of Americans including Republican voters are not in favor
of loosening stay-at-home orders early.
In fact, they're concerned that the Trump administration is encouraging governors to
loosen those restrictions too early.
So there was a recent poll by Quinnipiac and here are the results.
Nearly 70% of Republicans said that they supported a national stay-at-home order.
95% of Democrats back such a measure in the survey.
And so what we're seeing is a number of right wing groups egging these protesters on.
And while it's a small group of people, they're getting much more attention.
It's being amplified and it's made to appear as though there are way more people who are
in favor of loosening these restrictions, but that's not the case.
What they're trying to do here, specifically the conservative organizations egging these
people on is to start swaying public opinion in the direction of allowing people to get
back to work immediately.
And that's dangerous, to say the least.
So who are the people behind these groups?
The Facebook groups, they mobilize using Facebook.
Target Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and they appear to be the work of Ben
Dorr, the political director of a group called Minnesota Gun Rights and his siblings Christopher
and Aaron.
In fact, a former Republican lawmaker from Iowa was quoted as saying, the brothers will
do anything to fan the flames of a controversial issue and maybe make a quick buck.
As we shared with you last week, there is a DeVos-linked conservative organization that's
also egging people on and encouraging them to go out there and protest.
>> The guy who is doing that is Greg McNeilly.
He is a campaign manager for Dick DeVos who ran for governor for Michigan 2006 and is
the husband of Betsy DeVos who's, of course, our education secretary.
So to me, that's actually more troubling.
Some yahoos who are trying to make money off of around people up over guns, that's dangerous
and it's problematic.
But it's not as tied to the Republican Party.
When you have the Education Secretary's longtime advisor egging people on to violate that sometimes
executive orders of the governors, but also the guiding policy of the federal government.
That would be Trump's government and Betsy DeVos's government.
That's more concerning to me.
So look, the thing that these guys don't understand, cuz another cultural signal in the parlance
of Meghan McCain the conservatives use is ignorance.
They like to be ignorant.
They are proud to be ignorant.
So the thing that they're ignorant about here is if you go out too early and then the disease
rebounds, well, then you're gonna set the economy back way more.
Cuz instead of staying indoors for potentially two or four more weeks, we might have to stay
indoors.
Do the whole cycle again, stay indoors for another two months or more.
In which case, not only do you hurt the economy and the businesses that the Republicans care
so much about.
But if people are unemployed for two months, that is going to be a massive problem.
40% of this country can't survive a $400 blow.
20 million people, 16, 17 million people already in counting, how are they gonna survive two
months of unemployment?
Especially once the stimulus money runs out which is going to be at this point imminent.
>> Exactly, so people who are part of these protests are looking for the short term benefit
of being able to go back to work.
Maybe some of them have cabin fever.
They just wanna get out.
I get it, I totally understand that.
But as you mentioned, all you need is a small group of people to go out there and undo any
of the progress that we've made over the last month.
And then we're back at square one and we have to stay in even longer.
So what they're doing is so disastrous.
And it's so harmful not only to their own health, but to the health of their family
members and also the overburdened healthcare workers who, by the way, are also testing
positive for coronavirus, because of the number of patients, right?
So why make that situation even more disastrous than it already is and why undo any of the
progress that we've made?
But these right wing groups on Facebook, I just wanna be clear.
What they are trying to do is sway public opinion in the direction of opening the country
back up.
But even worse is that they're preying on people who are easily manipulated, because
they're in a desperate situation.
I have no doubt that there are people who feel desperate.
They need to make money for their families.
And so I think they're hearing what they wanna hear from these dishonest actors and they're
full blown extremists.
They think that the NRA, I'm not making this up, they think the NRA is weak sauce, because
it doesn't go far enough.
It's not extremist enough in putting get guns in the hands of every single person in this
country.
So when you have that kind of motivating factor behind the scenes encouraging people to go
out there and egging them on, it is a recipe for disaster, especially when they have weapons
at the same time.
So look, it's not just people on the left who we're critical of what's happening right
now with these protests.
You also have Republican lawmakers including Governor Larry Hogan from Maryland.
He was speaking to, I believe, Jake Tapper over the weekend.
Here's what he had to say.
>> Frustration among the people that wanna get things open right away.
I'm frustrated also.
I mean, I wish I had someone to protest to.
But look, we're doing everything we possibly can to reopen in a safe manner.
But I don't think it's helpful to encourage demonstrations and encourage people to go
against the president's own policy.
For example, I mentioned earlier the president's policy says you can't start to reopen under
his plan until you have declining numbers for 14 days which those states and my state
do not have.
So then to encourage people to go protest, the plan that you just made recommendations
on Thursday, it just doesn't make any sense.
We're sending completely conflicting messages out to the governors and to the people as
if we should ignore federal policy and federal recommendations.
>> Yeah, I mean, nothing that Donald Trump does or says or makes sense.
And when it does make sense, there's usually some other conflicting statement that he provides
immediately after making sense which is the case here.
And now you have governors like Brian Kemp who plan on opening their state back up on
April 27th.
That's when restaurants can open and movie theaters can open in Georgia.
>> That's a bad idea.
Okay, so let's make sense of it and I'll give credit here, Hogan who's a Republican governor
and then ironic credit to Trump.
So look, when he comes out, and granted Maryland's a blue state.
So if he wants to have a career out of Maryland which he does, he's gonna have to be way more
moderate than the average Republican.
But still, defying Donald Trump is risky and somewhat courageous in the Republican Party,
and he's clearly defying him here.
And he did in regards to the testing as well saying, it's just not true that there's enough
testing.
So credit to Hogan.
I love giving Republicans credit if they actually earn it.
Now, in terms of Donald Trump, well, there is some political sense to what he's doing,
it requires callousness and a disregard of human life.
So basically, the idea is this.
He will take credit for, it doesn't matter what the life loss is.
I mean, he said it'd be zero.
Now, we're about 41,000.
But if it could be 280,000, you'll say, everybody said it was gonna be 300,000.
I came in under 300,000, I'm the best of the best.
That's cuz no one listens to scientists and doctors better than I do.
No one understands this disease better than I do.
By the way, something he said at the very beginning.
He literally said no one understands this better than he does and that maybe he should
have been a doctor instead.
But the second part of it is really important.
The economy is in ruins.
He doesn't wanna be blamed for that.
That is why he is setting up this rhetoric of liberate Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia,
etc., and let's reopen the country, let's reopen the country.
So he could later say the economy wasn't my fault.
I wanted to reopen the economy as soon as possible.
It's those damn Democrats who wouldn't reopen the economy and that's why the economy did
poorly.
Not because of my incompetence, not because it was over-inflated.
It was those damn Democrats who took too long to open up the country.
Otherwise, we'd all be fine.
And so he's setting that up.
And yes, a lot of lives might be lost if people listen to him and open up too quickly.
But as a matter of politics, I get that strategy.
>> He always says two different things, so he can lean on the statement that's convenient
at any given moment.
He's done this since the beginning of his presidency, so we should expect it.