Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “All In” that every time President Donald Trump “focuses on my state or on me, we see the violent rhetoric increase.”
Hayes said, “You wrote about being targeted. And obviously, there’s a few layers to this as you’ve been a target of national in the media, a target of the president, and obviously, it appears allegedly a target of this kidnapping plot. As the president turns his rhetorical fire on people, they end up needing 24-hour security. They end up having threats. what has it been like to be on the receiving end of that?”
Whitmer said, “Well, it’s been hard, Chris. I mean, I don’t have a whole lot of time to stop and process it or feel sorry for myself. I’ve got a job to do, and I’m going to keep doing my job. But starting in April when the president singled me out and called me that woman from Michigan and tweeted ‘Liberate Michigan,’ every time he focuses on my state or on me, we see the violent rhetoric increase. We see the threats online increase. I have had to have a lot of serious hard conversations with my children when there are people with AR-15s out on our front lawn. “:
She continued, “These are people who are looking for any leader to give them some credibility and some comfort and some encouragement. And when Donald Trump won’t denounce them in the middle of a presidential debate, that’s the kind of encouragement they see, when Donald Trump says things like, lock them all up, that’s the kind of encouragement. And it’s dangerous. It’s anti- American. We settle our differences at the ballot box. And if we don’t like the result, we get organized and get ready for the next election. We have peaceful transition of power. We put our democracy before our party, and we put our country before ourselves. That is not how this administration operates, and that’s what makes this choice to elect an experienced, empathetic set of people like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is where I believe our country is headed because we are sick and tired of being sick and tired and worried about our lives and livelihood.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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