Newt Gingrich says it's 'tragic' to watch governors 'behave like dictators'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.
Referencing stay-at-home order restrictions that are intended to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Monday that it's been "tragic" to see American politicians “behave like dictators."
“We’ve seen this all across the country,” Gingrich told “Fox & Friends.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“The governor of Minnesota protected Planned Parenthood but closed churches. Pretty hard to argue that Planned Parenthood is more important than a church or a synagogue. They’re seeing all of these kinds of political games by politicians and I think that they ought to back off,” Gingrich said.
"Americans are adults, Americans can make rational decisions and they ought to engage in social spacing and, if they do that, what’s the beef?”
TEXAS SALON OWNER ON BEING JAILED FOR REOPENING BUSINESS: 'I NEVER QUESTIONED MY DECISION'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has emerged as a champion of defying stay-at-home orders intended to stop the coronavirus from spreading, stirred the pot with a cryptic tweet Sunday.
"Take the red pill," he wrote.
Some followers saw it as a sign that Musk was pushing for the conservative cause. Adviser to the president and first daughter Ivanka Trump later retweeted it, adding the word: “Taken!”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}More recently, it's been slang for people abandoning the ways of liberalism for the values of conservatism. People of all ages and ethnicities posted online videos describing "red pill moments" — personal awakenings that have caused them to reject leftist narratives imbibed since childhood from friends, teachers and the news and entertainment media.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL CORONAVIRUS MAP
Musk has been vocally critical of government shutdown policies during the global pandemic recently, reopening Tesla's California plant in defiance of local restrictions there last week.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tesla's factory reopened last Monday with Musk practically daring local law enforcement to arrest him. The plant apparently continued operations on Tuesday. Officials backed off Wednesday and announced that the move would be OK, as long as the company followed previously agreed-upon worker safety precautions.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News Frank Miles contributed to this report.