Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued a stay-at-home order late last month, as the coronavirus epidemic took hold in her state. When the governor – a Democrat and fierce critic of Trump – extended the order by 15 days last week, a group of residents filed a lawsuit claiming Whitmer infringed on their Constitutional rights.

After the Michigan Court of Claims rejected the suit, the state legislature sat down in Lansing on Thursday to debate extending Whitmer’s state of emergency.

Though the vote would not affect the standing stay-at-home order, it could renew the state of emergency that grants Whitmer the power to issue such restrictions. Hundreds of demonstrators showed up, clad in US flags and MAGA hats, and chanting “Let us in!” and “Vote no!”

It was the second mass rally against Whitmer’s lockdown measures. Two weeks ago, thousands drove to Lansing – mostly observing social distancing protocols – outraged at the governor’s ban on “non-essential” activities that included selling gardening tools or paying someone to mow the lawn.

Thursday’s demonstration, dubbed the “American Patriot Rally,” drew some gun-rights advocates, who carried their firearms into the capitol building. Democratic politicians and pundits noticed this and immediately portrayed the protests as some kind of armed insurrection by white nationalists

“This is America in the age of Trump,” one pundit commented, in apparent solemnity.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) – member of the ‘Squad’ of progressive female freshmen – weighed in as well, claiming that while “Black people get executed by police for just existing… white people dressed like militia members carrying assault weapons are allowed to threaten State Legislators and staff.”

“Our gun laws are so broken,” Tlaib added.