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On Friday, April 17, days after thousands descended on the Michigan capitol to demand the easing of coronavirus restrictions, Debbie Regimbald posted a message in Vermont Gun March, a Facebook group with 1,673 members, gauging interest in protesting Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Is there anyone out there organizing a drive to Montpelier to PROTEST!!!!! As an Alliance I say someone organize a drive and join several other States and STAND UP for our Civil Liberties as we are losing them at a rapid pace,” Regimbald posted.
A day later, Regimbald created the public Facebook group “Vermont Against Excessive Quarantine” and is hosting a “peaceful” rally in Montpelier on Wednesday “to end this shutdown.” She could not be reached for comment.
For Kevin Hoyt, a gun rights advocate who is running for governor, the time is right.
“The government is telling us not to rally, so I figure what a better time to rally,” Hoyt said in an April 18 video.
“We’re going to obey all the rules, we’re gonna stay in our cars,” he added.
“I hope we jam Montpelier right full of traffic, we’ll lock them up tight and beep our horns and fly our flags and hold our signs and protest,” Hoyt said. “Protest against our own government, against Gov. Scott for his reactions with the Covid-19.”
On Monday, Scott was asked about complaints that he was being too conservative in his approach to the novel coronavirus crisis.
“I typically don’t hear them, saying that I’m too conservative,” said Scott, who frequently disagrees with President Donald Trump.
“There are many people who think we’re moving way too slow and that we should just flip the switch and open the economy back up. And there are those who think we’re moving way too fast, and we really need to slow down and not do anything for a period of time,” he said.
“If we can manage through that somewhere — like I’ve done my whole political life — and try and manage it through the middle, I think we’ll be successful,” Scott added.
Similar protests have already taken place in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee while there are plans for more rallies throughout the country this week.
“I am aware of protests that have occurred and those that may occur. We will continue to monitor these situations as they arise,” Attorney General TJ Donovan said in a statement Monday.
“Vermonters retain their constitutional rights during this time of crisis. Our rights, however, must be balanced with public health strategies that prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Donovan added. “The vast majority of Vermonters have done the right thing and voluntarily complied with Governor Scott’s lawful executive orders.”
For weeks, members of another social media group, including Regimbald and Hoyt, called Vermont Patriots — a self-described place for “Vermont residents who support the Second Amendment” — had also been expressing discontent with the state’s response to Covid-19 and calling on individuals to disregard government directives to self-isolate.
The posts in the 427-member group included messages railing against Scott’s stay at home order and Donovan’s announcement there would be $1,000 fines for people and businesses who flagrantly disobeyed the executive order.
“This guy is terrible,” Max Misch — a self described white supremacist — commented, referring to Scott, on a VTDigger article posted to the group about the governor saying Trump would not decide when Vermont would lift coronavirus restrictions.
In an April 6 video posted to Vermont Patriots, Hoyt, who is also a group administrator, says there is no doubt that Covid-19 “is a real virus” and that individuals are dying, but that the government’s response has been too drastic.
“I’m not going to comply and I’ll fight the ticket in court,” said Hoyt.
Other recent posts include a video of Candace Owens, a right-wing firebrand, in which she tells the story of law enforcement stopping her for not wearing a mask while shopping in a Whole Foods.
“Coronavirus is ushering in tyranny,” Owens said.
Last Tuesday, a Vermont Patriots member advocated protesting the state’s “mother hen” government by blocking traffic in Montpelier “for hours” while practicing social distancing “so they can’t use that against us.”
Then on Wednesday, April 15, a small private social media group called “Vermonters Against Excessive Quarantine” popped up.
Not to be confused with Regimbald’s group, Vermont Against Excessive Quarantine, little is known about the Vermonters Against Excessive Quarantine social media group — which currently has 27 members and a meager eight posts — except that it shares the same name as numerous other anti-quarantine organizations that all surfaced on Facebook in the span of two days.
The list of groups includes “Wisconsinites Against Excessive Quarantine,” “Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine,” “Ohioans Against Excessive Quarantine,” “New Yorkers Against Excessive Quarantine,” “New Jerseyans Against Excessive Quarantine,” New Mexicans Against Excessive Quarantine” and others. Of these, at least four have direct ties to the Dorr family, which is conected to the pro-gun organization Minnesota Gun Rights, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
Americans for Prosperity, an organization founded and funded by the billionaire Charles Koch, has also been found to be fomenting anti-quarantine sentiment throughout the country, according to the Intercept — however there is no evidence it has been involved in the Vermont action.
Rob Roper, the president of the conservative Ethan Allen Institute which has received funding from Koch-affiliated foundations in the past, said Monday that he was only peripherally aware of the upcoming protest, and that he hadn’t been asked to take part in it.
“I’m not going to say anything about that because I don’t want to add to anyone’s stress — either the politicians who are making the decision or the people who are living with it,” he said.
“At some point we have to reopen the economy, I’m not going to play doctor and say tomorrow is the right time to do it,” Roper added. “I’m really hoping the experts are getting it right.”
However, in the first three weeks of April the Ethan Allen Institute has published an analysis of Scott’s response.
“We will never know how many more Vermonters have years knocked off their lives, never know how many cases of domestic abuse occurred, how many more high schoolers dropped out a year or two later due to the stay at home order,” wrote David Flemming, who is an alumnus of the Koch Internship Program and Koch Summer Fellow Program, on April 10.
“There is a tradeoff here, one that does not mean we should only count the lives lost to COVID-19. This implies that reopening Vermont’s economy before the number of lives lost from COVID-19 reaches ‘0’ may actually save lives, on net. Job loss means lives lost,” he wrote.
And on April 14, John McClaughry, vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute, wrote that the creation of a Vermont state police web page where people can report if a business or an individual is violating the governor’s executive order was “was reminiscent of the East German Stasi police state.”
Meanwhile, Deb Billado, the chair of the Vermont Republican Party, had not even heard about the Wednesday rally until Monday.
Billado, who on Thursday wrote in her weekly newsletter that the economic crisis brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic is “worse than the disease,” said in an interview that in Vermont she has not sensed a tremendous amount of unhappiness with the stay at home order.
“Not like in other states,” she said.
“I think the governor is doing a good job given the situation we are in,” Billado said. “I think we have to walk slow, make sure we do the right thing so we don’t have a second wave come at us in the coming weeks.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated that Rob Roper had been asked to take part in the protest.
