Michigan Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer was caught violating her state-mandated coronavirus restrictions over the weekend while she attended an event at a bar with a large number of people.
The photo was taken at an East Lansing bar-restaurant, The Landshark Bar & Grill, on Saturday, and showed Whitmer sitting in close proximity with at least a dozen other people. The group had pushed several tables together to form one large table.
“Michigan restaurants and bars are still subject to capacity limits and social distancing requirements,” The Detroit Free Press reported. “Current orders require six people or fewer at tables and distances of six feet between tables.”
The photo was posted to social media by one of the people who attended the event but was later deleted. Breitbart News was the first to report the story.
In a statement, Whitmer admitted that she made a mistake and apologized:
Throughout the pandemic, I’ve been committed to following public health protocols. Yesterday, I went with friends to a local restaurant. As more people arrived, the tables were pushed together. Because we were all vaccinated, we didn’t stop to think about it. In retrospect, I should have thought about it. I am human. I made a mistake, and I apologize.
Ted Goodman, Communications Director for the Michigan Republican Party, slammed Whitmer over the incident, saying that businesses had suffered under her pandemic restrictions.
“Gov. Whitmer admitted that she broke her own COVID rules and is asking for leniency but what about the countless small businesses and mom-and-pop shops fined, and in some cases shutdown [sic], by Whitmer?” Goodman asked. “For Gov. Whitmer it’s rules for thee, but not for me.”
Whitmer has repeatedly come under fire over her handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Michigan and over some of her personal actions.
The Daily Wire reported last month:
Michigan Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer was allegedly caught making false statements in a recent interview where she claimed that she was “here in town the whole time” despite having recently traveled to Florida.
Whitmer made the claims during a podcast appearance with MIRS News host Kyle Melinn on April 12, a week before news broke that Whitmer had traveled to Florida in March. Fox News went as far as to say that Whiter had “lied” about her travels.
Earlier this month, the Michigan Senate Oversight Committee voted to subpoena the Whitmer administration’s nursing home records “in an effort to get a clearer picture of how Whitmer’s policies impacted the COVID-19 death rate in Michigan adult and long-term care facilities,” The Daily Wire reported. “The Whitmer administration reportedly had a policy similar to that of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who required that nursing and other adult and long-term care facilities accept patients recovering from COVID-19, even if those patients remained contagious or still tested positive for the virus.”
Related: