President Joe Biden praised Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) as “honorable” during a Tuesday trip to Michigan amid a scandal involving her use of a private jet on a secret trip to Florida.
“You’ve got a backbone like a ramrod,” Biden said of Whitmer at Ford Motor Company’s Dearborn electric vehicle plant, Deadline Detroit reported.
“You’ve got a brain as big as anybody in the business. And you’re so honorable,” he continued about the scandalized governor.
“It’s a delight to know you. As I’ve said to you before, I’ll come campaign for you or against you, whatever will help you the most,” Biden said.
Whitmer faces re-election in 2022, should she choose to run again.
A recent poll indicated she may encounter challenges as her attempts to explain away a secret trip aboard a private jet to visit her father in Florida have dragged on for over a month.
Progress Michigan, a far-left advocacy group, asked 820 Michigan voters May 5-6, 2020 about Whitmer’s job performance and 49 percent said they approved, six percent said they “somewhat” disapproved, and 43 percent “strongly” disapproved.
Another survey found 46 percent of respondents said Whitmer deserved to be re-elected, while 41 percent said she did not.
In a hypothetical matchup with Detroit Police Chief James Craig, 48 percent of respondents said they would vote for Whitmer, while 42 percent indicated they would back the challenger. Craig is retiring June 1 and there is speculation he will mount a campaign as a Republican against the incumbent.
Whitmer has been fumbling questions for weeks about the details of her secret trip to Florida.
Whitmer’s original story was that her trip was strictly “personal” to visit her ailing father, who owns a property in West Palm Beach.
“I’ve said everything I am going to say about my trip to go check on my father,” Whitmer told a 9&10 News journalist when questions persisted. “It was a quick trip. It was an important family reason for doing it. And I have nothing to add.”
“I showed up when I was needed. I did a lot of cooking, a lot of cleaning,” Whitmer said last week.
“When you’re the governor of Michigan, you’re always on the clock, but it does not mean that you’re not also a daughter who shows up when a family member needs her,” she said.
But late Friday, Whitmer’s office claimed her 501(c)(4) organization paid for the flight, which would require an organization-related activity to do so.
Whitmer repeatedly claimed the trip was strictly personal business, which would not allow her to use nonprofit funds for that activity, Michigan Rising Action said after the news broke.
“501(c)(4) groups are social welfare organizations and are not allowed to pay for personal expenses for officials,” the group — itself a 501(c)(4) group — said in a news release.
If Whitmer had a legal justification for using the nonprofit funds for the trip, it would indicate she did other things in Florida besides tend to her father’s alleged needs. The trip occurred in March, the original story broke in April, and the 501(c)(4) acknowledged it as an expense in May.
“Today’s revelations that Whitmer’s non-profit paid for her personal trip to Florida is shady and makes it clear why she tried to hide the trip and cover up who paid,” Tori Sachs, Michigan Rising Action’s former executive director, said Friday.
“Either Whitmer’s Florida trip was for a legitimate 501(c)(4) purpose, in which case the c4 could pay for it, or it was personal, in which case a c4 can’t pay for it. Whitmer’s personal use of her 501(c)(4) account funds must be investigated.”
Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays — download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Parler.
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