Gov. Beshear calls effigy wrong, evil, vile; says he won't bow to terror
In his first coronavirus briefing since Friday, Gov. Andy Beshear addressed a rally at the Capitol where an effigy made in his likeness was hung from a tree.
The rally happened Sunday. He says it is the first time since becoming governor that he has feared for his children's safety.
Beshear said protesters walked up and stood on his porch that day, "just a windowpane away from where my kids play." Beshear's children are ages 9 and 10, and he said thankfully they were not home that day.
The rally was a Patriot Day Rally, centered around protecting gun rights.
According to the event description, the rally was held "to educate and inspire everyone today to be more like the original American Patriots who would not stand for their God given right to protect themselves and their loved ones to be taken away by tyrants."
Beshear said after the group of people left his porch, they retreated nearly 100 yards and "hung a dummy with my face on it." The effigy also featured a saying believed to be yelled by Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth: "Sic semper tyrannis." It's a Latin phrase meaning, "Thus always to tyrants."
The governor called the act wrong, vile and evil.
He made his message to those at the rally clear: "I will not be bullied."
"Hanging an effigy? That is using fear to get your way," Beshear said.
Beshear put some of the blame on elected leaders who he said emboldened and embraced them.
He said he was referring to some, including a senator, who participated in a recent previous rallies, although he would not call anyone out by name.
“You cannot fan the flames and then condemn the fire," Beshear said of them.
Republican representatives Savannah Maddox and Stan Lee were observed at a protest on May 2.
Beshear was asked if he regrets his decision to move into the governor's mansion to which he answered no. "I'm not moving out. I'm not bending to terror."
As to whether those seen on video hanging his effigy will be charged, Beshear said that'll be up to prosecutors.