But state deputy Beau LaFave, a Republican from the Michigan Upper Peninsula, said it was difficult to connect these points. “There were a lot of people angry about both, but nobody did any damage or hurt anyone in Michigan,” he said. “They were angry and screaming, but they didn’t punch any police and didn’t do any damage inside the building.”
In fact, although the protest in April was loud and tense, it was not violent, although one person was arrested after an altercation between two men outside. But the rhetoric in the crowds at the April and May protests was heated. One protester carried a sign that read “Tyrants Get the Rope”, and another carried an American flag with a doll made to look like Mrs. Whitmer hanging on it.
The Presidential Transition
Meshawn Maddock, head of the national organization Women for Trump, and in line to become vice president of the state’s Republican Party, helped organize the “Unlock Michigan” rally in April and recently organized crowded Michiganders buses to travel to Washington. Photos and videos of the rally in the nation’s capital filled her social media pages and, as she walked towards the US Capitol, she praised the “most incredible crowd and sea of people I’ve ever worked with”.
While she was attending the rally outside Ellipse, she said she was not at the Capitol when the crowd of Trump supporters stormed the building, and she later condemned the violence.
On Wednesday, while Maddock was in Washington, several hundred people gathered outside Michigan’s parliament to protest the electoral certification that took place almost 600 miles away. The State Chamber was closed, however, to comply with Covid’s rules that it be closed when the Legislature is not in session. The demonstration, which featured flags and Trump hats and a handful of men armed with guns, remained peaceful – and sharp. A protester waved a Trump flag that had four bobblehead dolls hanging: Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the chief judge of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts.
Michigan is an open transport state, so it is not uncommon to see armed individuals walking the corridors of the state capitol. The Capitol Commission, the body that sets the rules and approves the building’s maintenance projects, discussed the arms ban on the Capitol after the April protest, but no action was taken.