Democrats Don't Want to Shut Churches Down Permanently

Zach Rathner

Spirituality & Religion

8th October 2020

Democrats Don't Want to Shut Churches Down Permanently

Any shutdown is meant to be temporary (Getty Images).

The Claim

Democrats plan to shut down churches permanently in response to COVID-19.

News posted on

Twitter

Cliff Maloney

Emerging story

An October tweet by President Trump showed a video of an anti-mask protest in Idaho where three protesters were arrested on suspicion of resisting or obstructing police after violating the a social distancing order. Trump tweeted the video saying that Democrats want to shut down churches permanently.

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Users across social media continued to share the claim.

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar’s investigation has determined that this claim is false. The video Trump tweeted actually comes from arrests made in Idaho following a church holding a maskless event in a parking lot where 200 people attended. The event, held in Moscow, Idaho, violated a town face mask and social distancing order put in place to prevent COVID-19 spread.

We could not find any evidence of any Democrat calling for the shutdown of churches. The Trump campaign has not followed up the tweet with any comment as to what the President based the claim on. Multiple states have ordered large gatherings to cease and forced non-essential businesses to close, but others, like Ohio, banned public officials from closing houses of worship.

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