‘Go To Work And Die?’ Ex-RNC Chair Fact-Checks Trump On Coronavirus Protests

04/21/2020

President Donald Trump defended those protesting stay-at-home orders to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. But a former official of his own party is calling him out over it.

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says those demonstrators aren’t just putting their own lives at risk, they’re also endangering the lives of vulnerable people around them.

Trump claimed the demonstrators ― who are being goaded by right-wing media ― “love our country” and “want to get back to work.”

But Steele stepped in with a reality check.

“Go to work and die?” he asked. “Go to work and get sick? What is the point of that?”

Steele said the governors who put the restrictions into place are trying to protect their citizens from COVID-19.

“We’re trying to get healthy,” he said, adding:

“And if you weigh your job greater than you weigh your grandparents’ lives or your children’s lives or your own life, maybe that’s your individual choice, but that’s not something that I’m willing to take a risk with my life on.”

He said the president should give Americans clarity and a sense of purpose so they’re willing to stay home.

“But that’s not what this president has done,” he said.

See his full comments above.

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