The Wisconsin GOP's treasurer asked people attending an anti-lockdown rally to 'please leave Confederate flags' and guns at home to 'try to control the optics'

• A Wisconsin GOP official begged people organizing and attending an anti-lockdown rally in Madison this week not to bring Confederate flags and firearms to the event.
• "Ok folks, I implore you, please leave Confederate flags and/or AR15s, AK47s, or any other long guns at home," Brian Westrate posted in a private Facebook group, The New York Times reported.
• Westrate added: "I well understand the Confederacy was more about states rights than slavery. But that does not change the truth of how we should try to control the optics during the event."
• Several similar protests, many of which have featured Confederate flags, pro-Trump gear, and assault rifles, have popped up in other states as conservatives and those on the far-right assail stay-at-home orders as an attack on their civil liberties.
• The vast majority of US states have some form of a stay-at-home order in effect to try to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
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The Wisconsin Republican Party's treasurer asked people organizing and attending a rally in Madison this week not to bring Confederate flags and firearms to the event.

"Ok folks, I implore you, please leave Confederate flags and/or AR15s, AK47s, or any other long guns at home," Brian Westrate posted in a private Facebook group, The New York Times reported. "I well understand that the Confederacy was more about states rights than slavery. But that does not change the truth of how we should try to control the optics during the event."

(The main goal of the Confederacy was to preserve slavery, as Confederate leaders explicitly laid out in their constitution.)

Westrate acknowledged writing the post in an interview with The Times and added that it might be pointless to ask rallygoers to limit what they bring to the event.

"Ideally, people should leave Trump stuff at home," Westrate said. "But you can't hold a rally in favor of the First Amendment and then become over-draconian in terms of telling people how to dress."

The goal of the Madison rally, which will take place on Friday, is to protest Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers' decision to extend the state's stay-at-home order through May 26 to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Many Republicans and those who support President Donald Trump have decried Evers' order and other similar mandates from governors across the US as an attack on civil liberties.

The Times reported that "thousands" of people have indicated that they will attend the Madison rally, potentially making it the largest anti-lockdown protest so far.

The US is currently the global epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The World Health Organization declared the virus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, a pandemic last month. Public health officials have repeatedly urged the public to stay inside as much as possible to mitigate the spread of the disease.

Governors in almost every US state have mandated some form of social distancing or stay-at-home order, though the Republican governors of five states — North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Arkansas — are still refusing to impose statewide lockdowns.

As of Thursday, more than 840,000 people have been infected in the US and over 46,000 have died. Business are shuttered, hospitals are overwhelmed, and more than 26 million people have filed for unemployment in the last five weeks.

Trump has put out contradictory statements on how the country should move forward as it grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, he blasted out several tweets calling to "LIBERATE" Minnesota, Virginia, and Michigan, a move many saw as fomenting dissent against stay-at-home orders.

But on Wednesday, the president said during the daily coronavirus briefing that he disagreed "strongly" with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to start reopening some businesses in his state as early as Friday.

Trump's announcement came one day after he praised Kemp, and after CNN reported that he and Vice President Mike Pence called Kemp on Tuesday night expressing support for his decision.

"I think it's too soon," Trump said on Wednesday, referring to Kemp's plan to reopen certain businesses. "And I love the people. I love them. But they can wait a little bit longer, just a little bit, not much, because safety has to predominate. We have to have that. So I told the governor very simply that I disagree with his decision, but he has to do what he thinks is right."

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