Once you read the unhinged tweets of former Sheriff David Clarke about the coronavirus pandemic, you will thank God that he has not (yet) gotten that senior position in Trump’s Department of Homeland Security.
You may recall that Clarke was once a staple of toxic on-air commentary on Fox. That is, until he became too crazy even for that network. But not too crazy for Trumpers. Clarence Thomas’ wife, Ginni, and other conservative activists reportedly pushed him for a senior position at DHS as recently as early last year.
Well, Clarke went on a tweetstorm last week urging people to ignore public health experts’ recommendations to “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus pandemic by having the public stay home. David Neiwert, at DailyKos caught the tweets, at least three of which have since been removed by Twitter “for violating its terms of service which included a ban on posts urging self-harm.”
Here’s what Clarke tweeted during the middle of our social-distancing coronavirus pandemic:
“GO INTO THE STREETS FOLKS. Visit bars, restaurants, shopping malls, CHURCHES and demand that your schools re-open. NOW! If government doesn’t stop this foolishness…STAY IN THE STREETS. END GOVERNEMNT CONTROL OVER OUR LIVES. IF NOT NOW, WHEN? THIS IS AN EXPLOITATION OF A CRISIS.”
“It is now evident that this is an orchestrated attempt to destroy CAPITALISM. First sports, then schools and finally commercial business,” he warned in one since-deleted tweet. “Time to RISE UP and push back. Bars and restaurants should defy the order. Let people decide if they want to go out.”
“I am TIRED of all this, ‘we have to err on the side of caution’ BULL SH*T. WE HAVE TO GET BACK TO REASONABLENESS DAMMIT. It’s the DAMN FLU. Stop being afraid and start being SENSIBLE. WASH YOUR FUCK*NG HANDS! STOP BUYING TOILET PAPER. DO YOU FUC*ING HEAR ME????”
“Folks, the LEFT has collapsed our institutions that have served us in times of trouble,” he tweeted. “TAKE … TO … THE … STREETS. That is the battlefield the LEFT has defined. I will no longer sit back and watch the destruction of this great republic over the FLU.”
Apparently, Clarke thinks he knows better than the public health experts. Or maybe he just doesn’t care about our health systems becoming overburdened if too many people fall ill at once.
(Clarke image via screen grab)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdgcyT_nsBA