Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) has never implemented a statewide mask requirement, though nearly a dozen areas of the state have local restrictions, including Boise. For months, Little has been at odds with Lt. Gov Janice McGeachin (R) over pandemic restrictions (in Idaho, the governor and lieutenant governor run on separate tickets); the state’s current guidelines “strongly” recommend face coverings but require them only in long-term care facilities. McGeachin vehemently opposes any mask mandates.
McGeachin, who appeared in a video last fall that suggested the pandemic “may or may not be occurring,” was photographed speaking at the Boise protest Saturday.
“At 10 a.m., people are going to be lighting up burn barrels to throw masks in, mandates, emergency orders and replications thereof, because I think everyone is ready for these emergency orders to be lifted,” Moon said in the video.
In a video from the scene in Boise captured by Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Sergio Olmos, half a dozen children are seen grabbing handfuls of blue surgical masks and dropping them into the fire as adults are heard warning them not to go too fast.
In the video, a boy is heard shouting, “Destroy them!”
Organizers for Boise rally had a permit, but it is being investigated after the fire was set in a barrel, the Idaho State Police said in a statement.
“Those involved with the event were informed both before and during the event that open flames are not allowed on State Capitol grounds,” according to the State Police.
Saturday’s anti-mask rallies in Idaho encapsulate the polarized response to the pandemic across the United States, with some conservatives viewing business restrictions and mask mandates not as public health guidance but a form of government overreach.
“We’re standing here today to rein back government, to reestablish our republican form of government … that has balance between the branches,” Darr Moon, who helped to organize Saturday’s demonstration, said in a video interview with Olmos, the Oregon reporter. “That’s not what we have today,” Moon added, saying Little and other governors nationwide have been “running the show.”
In Idaho, the pushback to government restrictions continue to come from inside the house.
Idaho has tallied more than 173,000 cases of the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic and at least 1,800 deaths.
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