Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear addressed a right-wing militia group’s hanging of his effigy on Capital grounds. He said in a Tuesday press conference his administration offered a drive-up and drive-through permit for protestors on Sunday. He said at the demonstration, a group called the “three percenters” walked past barriers at the Governor's mansion to stand on the front porch.
“Just a window pane away from where my kids play, the mob chanted and heckled,” he said.
Beshear said the group later retreated to an area several hundred yards away and hanged a dummy with Beshear’s face on it. He said it included a saying yelled by President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin. He said his children -- aged nine and 10 -- were not at the mansion when the event occured.
“Let’s start by calling it what it was and what it is,” Beshear said. “Actions aimed at creating fear and terror. Crossing over barriers, standing on the other side of the glass from where I raise my kids and hanging me in an effigy. That’s an action intended to use fear to get their way.”
He said the group is attempting to bully everyone else into doing what “they want us to do.” He said the group “didn’t get there alone” and were “embraced and emboldened by elected leaders that rallied with them weeks before.”
“Standing in front of a radical militia group, these elected officials claimed that people including me aren’t Christian and even told them that people wanted babies to be murdered. What did you think was going to happen after throwing out those types of claims to this group?” Beshear said. “Shouldn’t they have known what was going to happen? You can not fan the flames and then condemn the fire.”
Beshear said those elected officials who “threw red meat” have to claim responsibility because they “absolutely know what could have happened.” He said they are in part responsible for what did happen.
“And all elected officials can no longer actively seek the support and cater to these groups like we have seen...You can’t wait until something nasty and horrible happens to then claim it's wrong while you’ve catered the support of certain groups for votes or other reasons. And you certainly can’t write a column blaming the media and then saying it’s because no one’s playing baseball.”
Beshear said he did not want to name the officials but “they know who they are.”
He said the hanging was intended to send a message of “intolerance” and “hate” to others.
“I could never understand the depths of pain that this symbol causes to many of my fellow Kentuckians, but I can condemn it outright,” he said. “I will not be afraid. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down.”
Beshear reported 387 new cases of coronavirus over the last three days, including 117 new cases on Tuesday. That brings the total number of cases in the state to 8,951 and total tests to 193,576. Beshear also confirmed three new deaths.
Beshear said 489 Kentuckians are currently hospitalized with 78 in an intensive care unit(ICU), based on the numbers available to state officials. He said not all hospitals have reported the numbers of those hospitalized and in an ICU. He said 3,115 have recovered.
Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander said over 11,000 residents and staff at Kentucky long term care facilities in the state have been tested. Friedlander said Nazareth Home Clifton Campus in Louisville was tested this weekend.
“We had about 39 positive residents and 20 positive staff,” said Friedlander.
Friedlander said the people who were originally asymptomatic started showing symptoms.
“As time went on it became apparent that the facility was going to have a very tough time providing enough staff to the residents,” he said.
Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said 37 COVID-positive residents and staff members were evacuated over four hours to six different hospitals.
Stack also showed a clip of people gathering at a bar called The Paddock on Limestone in Lexington, Kentucky. He said it is a small example of “people all getting together as if there is not this infection out there.”
“I don’t know what it will take for us to learn that this is not a game,” Stack said. “Before you know that fun evening out turns into two weeks later, forty or fifty people sick who went out and spread the virus further.”
Beshear said he won’t go to the bar, and others should not as well.
“If we’re not going to promote social distancing at places, they’re not safe.”
Beshear said the state now has tests for anyone who wants one. He reminded people to sign up for tests and show up to testing sites.
