Coronavirus: Idaho Lt Governor waves gun and Bible in video questioning existence of pandemic

Idaho  Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin waved a gun and a Bible during a video in which she and other legislators seemed to question the existence of a global pandemic that has claimed some 230,000 lives in the US.

Ms McGeachin, 57, appeared alongside 10 other GOP figures in a short clip published by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a libertarian think-tank based in Boise, which says its mission is to "free the people from government dependency".

Sitting in the driver's seat of a large green-coloured SUV draped in the American flag, Ms McGeachin launched into a defence of the US Constitution as she and other officials ramped up their campaign to resist coronavirus restrictions.

She said: "We recognise that all of us by nature are free and equal and have certain inalienable rights among which are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing happiness and protecting safety".

The video, titled 'We the people of Idaho reaffirm our commitment to freedom' was published to YouTube on 27 October, when 74,000 new positive coronavirus tests were reported across the US, according to New York Times data. A resurgent virus is tearing through large swathes of the country in a week when cases have reached record levels.

A mostly-rural state in the northwestern corner of the country, Idaho - like other states with a low population density - has recorded relatively few coronavirus deaths compared with urban areas such as Florida and New York. But it is still recording enough cases to overwhelm hospitals.

"The fact that a pandemic may or may not be occurring changes nothing about the meaning or intent of state's constitution and the preservation of our inalienable rights," Karey Hanks says in the video. She is running unopposed for an Idaho state House seat.

Those who appeared in the video last week also signed a declaration in which they blasted state-level officials for imposing what they say are unnecessary coronavirus restrictions.

The declaration states: "In direct contravention of Idaho’s founding principles, state and local public officials have, for months, denied the people of our state basic and fundamental rights.

"By this letter, we demand an end to the emergency orders issued by state and local government officials and the restoration of our constitutionally-protected rights".

It ends with a pledge to ignore all future orders unless "those orders recognise, honour, and uphold, without reservation or equivocation, our God-given rights".

The video and declaration were released to coincide with Idaho's Republican governor Brad Little's decision on Tuesday to take the state back into Phase 3 coronavirus restrictions.  

"My fellow Idahoans, we are in a crisis with our health care system in Idaho due to the pandemic," Governor Little said. "I sincerely hope that some people have passed the point of thinking the pandemic is not real or is not a big deal, or that their personal actions don't really affect anything."