Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Sunday discerned a “layer of misogyny” in the threats and criticisms leveled against her and female members of her administration.
Appearing Sunday on “Face the Nation,” Whitmer responded to a clip that host Margaret Brennan played of Michigan GOP Chairman Ron Weiser recently calling Whitmer, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson “three witches” who needed to be burned at the stake politically.
Brennan also quoted Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, who recently bragged in a secret video that the Michigan GOP had “spanked” Whitmer on the budget, appointments, and other things. Shirkey was met with accusations of “sexualizing” Whitmer with such comments.
“They both apologized,” Brennan noted. “But do you think there should be repercussions for misogynistic, threatening remarks like this?”
“Well, when you say that they’ve apologized, I don’t know to whom they’ve apologized because I haven’t heard from them,” said Whitmer, who broadcast from a well-decorated room that included a needlepoint throw pillow of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“I can tell you this, though, that sadly, in this moment, there have been a lot of death threats. We know that there was a plot to kidnap and kill me; death threats against me and my family. It’s different in what I’m confronting than what some of my male counterparts are. So, yes, I do think that there is a layer of misogyny here that every woman in leadership has been confronting and dealing with to some extent.”
“I don’t have time, though, to focus on that, or to go punch-for-punch,” Whitmer concluded. “I’m not gonna do that. I’ve got a job to do, and that is helping get my state through this, helping get our economy back on track, supporting the American Jobs Plan so that helps us do both of those things, and that’s what I’m going to stay focused on.”
WATCH:
"There have been a lot of death threats, we know there was a plot to kidnap me and kill me … It is different in what I’m confronting than what some my male counterparts are," @GovWhitmer says of "misogyny" she's faced pic.twitter.com/IwNDjgbOID
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 11, 2021
Whitmer was the target of an alleged kidnapping plot that led to the arrest of a group of individuals last October.
As The Daily Wire reported on March 30:
On Monday, a judge decided that a trial will go forward for three men that are suspects in the plot to kidnap Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
The Detroit Free Press reported, “The men are three of the 14 said to have plotted to target Whitmer in response to her restrictions to slow the novel coronavirus. Six of the men were charged federally, and eight were charged at the state level over two counties.”
Judge Michael Klaeren found that there was not enough probable cause in the case against the three men to contain charges for communicating a threat of terrorism. The Detroit Free Press reported, “His ruling came at the conclusion of their preliminary examination in Jackson County’s 12th District Court.” Two of the three men were already facing charges. The third man, however, was included in a charge by request of the Michigan Attorney General’s office.