A bit disappointed by Gretchen Whitmer

September 24, 2024 • 10:00 am

UPDATE: As Malgorzata points out in a comment below citing an Algemeiner article, Whitmer did defend her attorney general, which constitutes taking sides against the odious Rashida Tlaib. A quote from the Algemeiner:

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) issued a statement in defense of the state’s Jewish Attorney General Dana Nessel over what she called “antisemitic” suggestions by US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) that Nessel’s office harbored “biases” against pro-Palestinian activists.

“The suggestion that Attorney General Nessel would make charging decisions based on her religion as opposed to the rule of law is antisemitic,” Whitmer wrote on Monday. “Attorney General Nessel has always conducted her work with integrity and followed the rule of law. We must all use our platform and voices to call out hateful rhetoric and racist tropes.”

The statement came one day after Whitmer, during an interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper, initially refused to weigh in on the quarrel between Nessel and Tlaib, who suggested that the attorney general has not treated anti-Israel protesters impartially because of her Jewish faith.

Whitmer, having corrected herself, is back on the side of the angels again. If only she were the Democratic candidate for President!

Although Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, identifies herself as a “progressive” Democratic, to me she seems progressive in the right way: she’s trying to fix the problems in her state with tangible legislation. You can see the list of her accomplishments here, and A. B. Stoddard, writing in The Bulwark last year, called Whitmer 52, “one of the most experienced, exciting, and winning Democrats in the country.” I agree with nearly all of her policies—although she’s a bit too soft on illegal immigration—and that’s why I wanted Whitmer to be the Democratic candidate for President. (Importantly, she also governs a swing state.) She has accomplished stuff in a bipartisan climate, and I’d feel a lot better with her at the helm than with Kamala Harris.

But when Kamala Harris was anointed by the Democratic Party to be its candidate, Whitmer refused to be a candidate. That’s very sad, because, given her record, Harris doesn’t hold a candle to her.  And, of course, if Harris wins this time she’ll surely be the Democratic candidate in 2028 unless she screws up big time, so that Whitmer would have to wait eight more years if she wanted to run America.

So I was sad to see this article in Politico; the title tells the tale (click to read):

An excerpt:

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declined to take sides in a debate between Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) over almost a dozen University of Michigan students charged for pro-Palestinian protests.

“I’m not going to get in the middle of this argument that they’re having,” Whitmer said on Sunday in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I can just say this. We do want to make sure that students are safe on our campuses and we recognize that every person has the right to make their statement about how they feel about an issue, a right to speak out,” Whitmer added. “And I’m going to use every every lever of mine to ensure that both are true.”

Nessel, Michigan’s first Jewish Attorney General, recently charged 11 University of Michigan students for pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Most were charged for refusing to vacate the encampments on campus in May, according to the Detroit Metro Times.

Nessel defended the state’s decision to charge these students saying, “Conviction in your ideals is not an excuse for violations of the law” and “what is a crime anywhere else in the city remains a crime on university property.”

Tlaib — the only Palestinian American in Congress and a strong critic of Israel — criticized Nessel for this decision in an interview with the Detroit Metro Times. She said: “It seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.”

. . . When CNN’s Jake Tapper initially asked about the back and forth between Nessel and Tlaib, Whitmer declined to directly defend or criticize the state’s attorney general, responding that all she could say was “our Jewish community is in pain, as is our Palestinian and Muslim and Arab communities in Michigan.”

“I know that seeing the incredible toll that this war has taken on both communities has been really, really challenging and difficult. And my heart breaks for so many,” Whitmer said. “But as governor, my job is to make sure that both these communities are protected and respected under the law in Michigan. And that’s exactly what I’m going to stay focused on.”

Well, it seems to me that Whitmer should be supporting her own attorney general, or at least saying, that “Nessel brought charges against the protesters and we need to let those charges play out in the legal system”. But she went a bit further with her “whataboutism”, not recognizing, apparently, that free speech is not the same thing as disrupting a campus and violating the law.

That said, Whitmer is clearly between a rock and a hard place. While her attorney general brought charges against pro-Palestinian students, one of her state’s representatives, the odious Tlaib, is supported by many Michigan Palestinians or their supporters. So I can’t hold this against her very hard. While I dislike politicans that are pure pragmatists, Whitmer is not really a pragmatist.  She takes stands, and is known for her potty mouth, which I like.  A bit of that is evident in the video below.

Here’s her speech at the Democratic National Convention, without any nattering about coconuts or inappropriate laughter.  Whitmer of course had to support Harris in her speech, but believe me, I’d rather check a box for Whitmer than for Harris in November.  Had there been debates to choose a candidate, Whitmer would, I think, have come out on top.  This is a tough, accomplished women who has no problem articulating her positions.

15 thoughts on “A bit disappointed by Gretchen Whitmer”

  1. A leader sometimes has to take a stand. ‘Everybody is in pain’ isn’t leadership.

    Further, it appears that the Attorney General is doing her job without bias, contrary to Tlaib’s assertion. This makes it all the more egregious for the Governor to cower in the corner.

  2. Interesting. I wish she had supported her AG as well. All she had to say was that the job of the AG is to enforce the law, independent of the Governor, and the process will play out. That would probably have been enough. Her response: “I’m not going to get in the middle of this argument that they’re having,” is a bit too detached. Maybe she was caught off guard by the question, but she should have expected something like this from Tapper.

    Let’s see if she corrects this in future statements or interviews.

    I’m still a Whitmer fan.

    1. I was thinking that last point especially. This question is now in the ether, and since news cycles tend to recycle questions, she will be asked about it again. After she does some thinking and listening, she should reply by waving off the question, saying only that the AG and the legal process must be allowed to work w/o interference.

    2. I doubt she’ll correct it. She needs all the support she can get in Dearborn and Hamtramck, since many in the traditionally Democratic Muslim population there are pushing back against some of the new Democratic priorities such as LGBTQ+ issues. I agree that she should have publicly supported her AG but she has to consider her next election. I’m not a fan of hers in general, stemming from her handling of COVID (closing the paint and garden sections of Home Depot while leaving other areas open, support for BLM rallies while closing all other public gatherings), and this is one more disappointment.

        1. I think Gov. Whitmer is in a tough spot partly of her own making. The item you link says that she defended her AG against allegations by Rep. Tlaib that she (the AG) was coming down harder on the anti-Israel trespassers because she (the AG) is Jewish. But according to the fact-check by Phaedrus at #5, Ms. Tlaib said no such thing. She accused the AG’s department of having a political bias against Palestinians. The fact-check points out, correctly, that many organizations in the U.S. are biased against Palestinians without being run by Jews. Of course we’re all allowed to speculate about what she really meant but was too politically astute to say out loud. Nonetheless, the Governor seems to have put her foot in it by defending her AG against something that someone else made up about the Congresswoman.

          The fact-check comes from a far-left news site that lauds Ms. Tlaib for standing up for “her people” which seems to refer not to the good people of Dearborn whom she represents in Congress but ethnically related foreigners in a faraway land whose interests are hostile to the country she affirms loyalty to. That is the odious part.

  4. Whitmer isn’t bad at all – she’s smart and hews a very acceptable line. She’s a person I could easily vote for without needing to interrogate all her ideas.

    Tlab, however, must go. I won’t have celebrations of 9-11 style terrorists in my NYC and I won’t have backers of Al Qaida’s twins, Hamas and Hezb, in American government.

    And… for the first time in my life I find myself giving money to those – anybody – who opposes the Squad.

    D.A.
    NYC
    column: https://democracychronicles.org/author/david-anderson/

  5. It’s probably a political decision to try not to alienate Michigan Muslims, whose votes may be needed to win the state for Harris. I wouldn’t be surprised if the DNC asked her to stay out of it.

      1. It is very rare for a US state governor to visit Japan.
        Professor Jerry Coyne is a big supporter of Gretchen Whitmer, so I posted some information about her (newspaper article).
        I’m very sorry.

  7. The U.S. state of Michigan and Shiga Prefecture in Japan are “sister cities”. 👭
    The common denominator of both is “lake”. 🌊
    That’s why Gretchen Whitmer came to Japan. 🇺🇸🇯🇵🐱

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