A group of right-wing protesters held a demonstration in front of the house of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s mansion this Sunday, at one point hanging an effigy of the governor on a tree in what looked to be a mock lynching. According to CNN, the protest was advertised on Facebook as a Patriot Day Rally to exercise Second Amendment rights.
The backlash against the group’s actions was swift, with even Mitch McConnell slamming the move as “unacceptable.”
“There is no place for hate in Kentucky,” he tweeted.
Responding to the backlash, one of the protest’s organizers took to Facebook and said that this is what happens when people have “stood by and watched this Governor drag people thru the mud and do nothing.”
“People have had enough, the rallies that you attend and speak at, do absolutely nothing to help the people of this State,” Kentucky 3Percenters Inc. State Secretary Patsy Kays Bush on Facebook. “It was not racist it was radical…You can condemn it till the cows come home but screaming and shouting in a microphone is not the answer any longer,….maybe it was in bad taste, maybe it was severe, maybe it was unexpected but at least it was something and I personally will stand by it to the absolute end.”
The protesters, who are part of a militia group that advocates for gun rights, were protesting against Beshear’s coronavirus restrictions at a Second Amendment rally in Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend.