Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) said Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that President Donald Trump was “creating a very dangerous situation” by criticizing her on Twitter after the FBI thwarted a plot to violently overthrow the state government by kidnaping her.
Anchor George Stephanopoulos said, “What should the president be saying right now?”
Whitmer said, “You know what, a decent human being would pick up the phone and say, are you okay? How is your family doing? That’s what a decent human being does. That’s what Joe Biden did. I think it tells you everything you need to know about the character of the two people that are vying to lead our country for the next four years. We are still in a health crisis. We are seeing record numbers being posted in many states. We are not done with COVID-19, and, in fact, the president himself has it. We’ve got to get our arms around the crisis, so we can get our arms around our economy to make sure people are safe, so dealing with hate groups and domestic terror is another really dangerous distraction from what the American people really want and need out of our president right now.”
Stephanopoulos said, “You’ve said the president is complicit with the extremists.”
Whitmer said, “Well, anyone who gives safe harbor to or encouragement to is complicit, and that’s precisely what he did on the national stage in the middle of a presidential debate when he said, stand by. That was his message. It wasn’t one of rebuke. It was one of rallying cry, and I think that’s the dangerous part of this moment.”
She continued, “Each time he has tweeted about me, each time that he has said liberate Michigan and said, I should negotiate with the very people who are arrested because they’re good people, that incites more domestic terror and I’m not the only governor going through this. Certainly, it’s been worse for me than most, but it is not unique to me. It is not even unique to Democrats. This White House has a duty to call it out, and they won’t do it. In fact, they encourage it. That’s precisely why as a country, we have a choice between an incredibly decent human being in Joe Biden and what we’ve seen the last four years. We need someone who can unify us. We need someone who can lead us through these tumultuous times and find common ground, and that’s why I’m proud to support Joe Biden, and that’s why these stakes are not just personal to me but to every one of us.”
Stephanopoulos said, “As far as you know, are you still under threat?”
Whitmer said, “Actually, George, since he first called me ‘that woman from Michigan,’ we saw an increase in hateful language and social media, and I think that it’s incumbent on all of us to bear a responsibility, social media, the press, our leaders to have platforms and so there’s ongoing rhetoric even the president last night in this tweetstorm won’t stop attacking me and I think that it’s creating a very dangerous situation, not just for me but for people in leadership roles who are trying to save lives all across this country.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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