Stewart Tells Gov Northam ‘Go to Hell’ After He Denies Bipartisan Request to Open Local Restaurants

During a press conference yesterday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said “I’ve had a number of requests: Can a part of this county, or town, move forward more quickly? And the answer to that is, we’re not allowing that. We have a floor in place that we will maintain.”

Prince William County Supervisors in Northern Virginia, where former Senate Nominee Corey Stewart lives and used to serve on the board for four terms, voted five to three in favor of sending a request to Governor Northam to allow restaurants the county to begin outdoor seating yesterday. Right now they are only allowed to do take-out.

Stewart did a live Facebook video today, where he told Governor Northam to “go to hell” over his decision to reject the “bipartisan” request. He called the governor “a very wicked man” who comes across as a “good old boy.”

He encouraged Virginians to “exercise civil disobedience” and told people “to not comply” with the governor’s order any more. He said that the “governor is no longer acting within the interests of the state.” He called on Virginia law enforcement not to enforce the orders any longer.

Three republicans, Pete Candland, Jeanine Lawson, and Yesli Vega as well as two Democrats Victor Angry and Kenny Boddye were the votes in favor of sending the request to the governor.

Candland said in a text message, “It will never be safe to reopen, but every day the governor keeps his shutdown in place, more businesses fold, more people are left without jobs and more people go deeper and deeper into debt. People’s lives have been devastated by this government-imposed shutdown, and we need to give folks an opportunity to open back up and try to recover.”

Ross Snare, spokesman for the Prince William Chamber of Commerce, said “I don’t know how much longer a lot of our businesses can take it, really. … People are ready to reopen. A lot of these restaurants have been shut down for three months and it hurts.”

It is unclear when Northern Virginia will be allowed to move forward into the first phase as they are slated to stay in “phase zero” of the state’s reopening process until a minute before midnight on Thursday, May 28. Northam further said yesterday that he would share more information Tuesday on if they would be allowed to move into phase one on schedule.