ARIZONA NEWS

Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward stands by tweets about nurses at protest

Apr 29, 2020, 12:45 PM | Updated: 12:54 pm

(AP Photo)...

(AP Photo)

(AP Photo)

PHOENIX – The chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party doubled down Wednesday on her belief that people wearing nurse uniforms at a state Capitol rally may have been fake.

Dr. Kelli Ward’s April 21 tweets implied that people dressed in scrubs and masks at coronavirus-related rally a day earlier were not actually health care workers.

“I don’t feel bad,” the former state senator told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show about her tweets, one of which encouraged anyone attending future protests to dress like a medical worker.

Hundreds of demonstrators in Phoenix marched against the coronavirus restrictions put in by place by Gov. Doug Ducey. A number of health care workers gathered to support the social distancing guidelines and restrictions on businesses.

“Give me a break. Not anybody thinks that every person that was there standing in those scrubs that were exactly the same, with the same sunglasses, in the same age range … were all actually health care workers,” Ward said.

One counterprotester wearing a face mask held a sign that read, “We know you’re frustrated but we need your help #pleasestayhome.”



Another, Phoenix nurse Lauren Leander said hearing protesters shout at the medical workers was disheartening.

“As a nurse, it’s the first time I’ve ever felt like the enemy,” Leander told The Broomhead Show on Friday.

Ward added health care workers, “had a right to protest just like everybody else.”

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Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward stands by tweets about nurses at protest