President Donald Trump’s top coronavirus advisor, Dr. Scott Atlas, is being accused of sedition and inciting violence by calling for Michigan to “rise up” after Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued new orders to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
“The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept,” Atlas, who is a radiologist – not an epidemiologist – tweeted Sunday night. He added the hashtags “#FreedomMatters” and “#StepUp” to his tweet.
Last month 14 people were charged in an alleged domestic terror plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer. Some reportedly also had a plan to “overthrow” the government, and some allegedly had “made plans to kidnap Whitmer and commit violence with the hopes of sparking a ‘civil war,'” MLive.com reports, quoting Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Back in May another man was charged with “credible threats to kill” Gov. Whitmer.
Dr. Atlas is currently serving as a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, which is headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Michigan’s Governor Whitmer Sunday night quickly pushed back against Atlas’s transparent attempts at what some are calling an attempt to incite violence (something First Daughter Ivanka Trump was also accused of attempting to do Sunday.)
Hours after Atlas’s tweet, he returned to Twitter to insist he wasn’t attempting to incite violence, but was merely talking about the electoral process and the right to peacefully protest.
Monday morning, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) blasted Atlas for “making implicit calls for violence.”
Here’s what some others are saying about Dr. Atlas’s tweets:
This article has been updated to include Congresswoman Dingell’s tweet.