| Greenville News
In a video recorded on Monday night, Greenville County lawmakers can be seen applauding an upstate activist who said South Carolina could face a “public security risk” unless government officials government reject the election of Joe Biden and end the restrictions on COVID-19.
Jon McMakin, the founder of Veritas Voice and another group called American Reformation, read a letter during a meeting of the Greenville County legislative delegation in a ballroom at the Greenville Convention Center. A video of McMakin’s comments was posted publicly on the American Reformation Facebook page, and Greenville News obtained a copy of his letter.
The video from the Monday night meeting shows that several members of the county’s legislative delegation stood up to support McMakin’s comments.
“The majority stood up,” said state deputy Chandra Dillard, a Democrat from Greenville who attended the meeting. “From a purely political point of view, I was not surprised. We have entered a new arena in terms of politics and civic engagement.”
Dillard said that among those who supported McMakin were five Republican lawmakers: state deputies Mike Burns, Bill Chumley, Garry Smith and Ashley Trantham and state senator Tom Corbin.
A recent event organized by McMakin: Patriotic crowd attends Fly the Flag rally
Smith, the delegation chairman, said he stood up because he shared McMakin’s concerns about the election, but Smith said he accepts that Biden becomes president on January 20.
Burns said he did not hear McMakin’s comments about Biden being “illegitimate”, but Burns said he stood up to show support for McMakin’s concerns about COVID-19 restrictions.
Chumley said he stood up because he shared McMakin’s concerns about the legitimacy of Biden’s election and the benefits of COVID-19 restrictions.
Calls to Trantham and Corbin were not returned immediately on Tuesday afternoon.
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McMakin requested “the rejection of all laws, regulations, orders, mandates and governmental decrees related to Covid’s restrictions and control of free movement, assembly, commerce, commercial activity and social and religious functions”.
His letter also describes a “demand” for “complete dismissal, rejection and annulment” of what he incorrectly described as “the illegitimate entry of the Biden government”.
President Donald Trump and his allies have filed 62 lawsuits in state and federal courts seeking to overturn the electoral results in states the president has lost, and 61 of them have failed, USA today reported when quoting Marc Elias, a Democratic electoral lawyer. Some of these cases were dismissed for lack of legitimacy and others were dismissed based on the merits of allegations of electoral fraud. The decisions came from judges appointed by Democrats and Republicans, including federal judges appointed by Trump.
Election: Duncan, Timmons and other SC congressmen voted against the results of the Electoral College
In an interview on Tuesday, McMakin said about 150 people were in the ballroom during the meeting in Greenville on Monday night, while another 300 were in a crowded area at the convention center.
He said he runs a tree pruning company and founded Veritas Voice earlier this year, although he had no experience as an activist. The Veritas Voice Facebook page has over 1,000 likes.
“I’m just a simple worker who lives in the mountains,” said McMakin.
McMakin said he is trying to prevent the violence from happening.
“We are in a pressure cooker right now, so one little thing can trigger a terrible scenario that we absolutely want no part of – we are trying to avoid that,” he said.
Smith said there was additional security at the meeting for two reasons: a large crowd was expected and because of last week’s rebellion by Trump supporters at the United States Capitol.
The letter that McMakin read at the meeting began:
“The citizens of the interior have a pathological inability to be controlled. Our cultural and religious heritage does not allow the acceptance of draconian and unconstitutional laws, decrees, mandates or regulations that are contrary to Freedom.
“The failure of South Carolina lawmakers, government leaders, agencies and departments to recognize and validate these facts will automatically create an environment that is likely to become a public security risk for all South Carolina residents.”
McMakin said he believed a series of COVID-19 emergency orders issued by Governor Henry McMaster were illegal because they were not approved by lawmakers. McMakin also questioned whether mask mandates approved by cities like Greenville and Anderson are doing more harm than good.
“Everyone is walking around with masks and it drives people away from society because we can’t read subtle facial recognition, non-verbal communication – as if we can’t see each other’s faces, and that creates this paranoia between everyone,” he said he.
Come back to learn more about this development story.