FRANKFORT, Ky. – Impatient protesters demanding Gov. Andy Beshear reopen Kentucky disrupted his televised Wednesday afternoon pandemic update, chanting, blowing horns and shouting into a megaphone outside the window of the briefing room and nearly drowning out his comments to Kentuckians.
The protest began with just a few people holding signs on the Capitol lawn, but by the time Beshear started to speak, the group numbered about 100 people.
Protesters, some of whom appeared to be standing less than 6 feet apart from one another, chanted “we want to work” and “facts over fear.” They yelled non-stop throughout Beshear’s one-hour press briefing, switching up chants and occasionally sounding a horn.
About halfway through his briefing, Beshear acknowledged the protesters, saying “there’s some noise in the background.”
“We do have some folks up in here in Kentucky today — and everybody should be able to express their opinion — that believe we should reopen Kentucky immediately, right now,” Beshear said. “Folks, that would kill people. That would absolutely kill people.”
“My job isn’t to make the popular decision, but the right decision, and the decision that saves peoples’ lives,” Beshear said.
As Beshear began his news conference, they rapidly switched between chants, which included: “Open up Kentucky!” “We want to work!” and “Open up the church!”
One person kept blowing a large horn, to cheers from the crowd. Some of the protesters appeared to be trying to keep their distance from other people, but many weren’t.
People driving by the Capitol honked their horns, but some of the passers-by weren’t fans of the protest. One person yelled out the window of their car at the protesters: “Idiots!”
