Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) said on “Fox News Sunday” that Republicans were to blame for an exemption in her order that allows places of worship to gather in groups of 50 or more during the coronavirus outbreak.

Guest host John Roberts asked, “One thing that kind of puzzles me is that you have limited groups of people to 50 or fewer yet, there is an exemption for places of worship. Why would a place of worship be any less likely to transmit diseases in a larger gathering than another place?”

Whitmer agreed, “It’s not. It’s not, and we’re discouraging people from gathering at all.”

Roberts pressed, “So, why this exemption?”

Whitmer said, “Well, you know, the separation of church and state, and the Republican legislature asked me to clarify that that’s an area that we don’t have the ability to enforce and control. We are encouraging people, though, do no congregate. Do not go to church on Sunday and sit next to people that could be spreading the COVID-19. You, yourself, could be carrying it and not even know it. The worst thing in the world is to go to church to worship and sit next to someone and infect them and have them suffer life-threatening consequences because of this decision.”

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