Nowhere did the COVID hysteria blight the land as remorselessly as it did in Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan, and now that the Left’s lockdown narrative has thoroughly unraveled, the embattled governor will need a new fake FBI kidnapping plot to divert attention from how she drove her once-thriving state into a ditch and revealed a disturbing taste for authoritarianism. Now, Whitmer is backpedaling furiously, even admitting on CNN Sunday night that many of her COVID measures “in retrospect, don’t make a lot of sense.” Uh, yeah. We could have told you that several years ago, Governor, but you would have dismissed us as purveyors of “disinformation.”
Even in the midst of making this concession, however, Whitmer tried to cover her tracks and justify her COVID measures. Michigan Capitol Confidential ( “Michigan’s Watchdog,” a publication of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy) noted Tuesday that during her conversation with Chris Wallace, Whitmer “misrepresented her COVID-19 record and used a false talking point to question Florida’s COVID data.” Wallace asked her what she would do differently if the COVID insanity began today. He pressed the governor — who forced people to remain in their homes, forcibly closed businesses and schools, and even prohibited people from buying seeds for their gardens and toys for their children — for specifics on how she might handle the same situation now.
That was when Whitmer actually displayed, for just a moment, a reaction one almost never sees from Leftist politicians, even when confronted with the bitter fruit of their actions: regret. It was, of course, tempered with defiance and self-justification, but nonetheless, Whitmer showed a modicum of regret when she said:
MICHIGAN GOV. WHITMER ON COVID LOCKDOWNS: "We had to make some decisions that in retrospect don't make a lot of sense, right? […] We didn't want people, you know, all congregating around the gardening supplies. […] It was February in Michigan, no one was planting anyway…" pic.twitter.com/WyOOAXsegZ
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 13, 2023
There were moments where we s–, you know, had to make some decisions that, in retrospects [sic], don’t make a lot of sense, right? Um, if you went into the hardware store, you could go in the hardware store, but we s–, we didn’t want people, you know, all congregating around the gardening supplies. People said, “Oh, she’s outlawed seeds.” It was February in Michigan, no one was planting anyway. But, um, that being said, you know, some of those policies I look back and think, you know, that, w– maybe was a little, was a little more than we needed to do.”
Actually, it wasn’t February in Michigan at all. Whitmer imposed a lockdown in mid-March 2020 and didn’t outlaw the buying of seeds until April. Michigan Capitol Confidential also notes that her statements were illogical anyway: “If people aren’t planting, why would they be congregating at the seed section?” Indeed.
Whitmer also played fast and loose with the facts when Wallace “asked why Florida, whose lockdowns were much shorter than Michigan’s, had fewer deaths per capita: 39.6 per 100,000 versus 97.3 per 100,000 in Michigan between June 2020 and 2021.” Whitmer responded in characteristic Leftist fashion, by offering her own facts: she “answered by questioning the data, even though the numbers came from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
In response to Whitmer’s selective and self-serving memory, former U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer tweeted, “The gaslighting here is simply breathtaking. The orders (multiple) were in late March/early April (NOT February) and were so unclear that some stores put caution tape around entire aisles to not risk noncompliance. A bit of humility would be nice.”
Related: Whitmer’s Last-minute Live-shot COVID-dodge Clown Show
Just The News noted Tuesday that “a Walmart labeled baby carriers as a banned purchase, wrongly understanding Whitmer’s executive order 2020-42.… Whitmer’s policies led to gyms being raided, and strip clubs operating while small businesses such as catering, bowling alleys, and more were forced to close or operate under heavy restrictions.” And as always, Leftists don’t feel bound by the rules they set for everyone else unless and until they get caught breaking them: “In May 2021, Whitmer was caught breaking her own COVID rules. A May 15 order demanded gatherings at food service establishments to have no more than six people at a table. She attended a meal at an East Lansing bar with 13 people, for which she apologized.”
Whitmer is sometimes touted as a possible Democrat presidential or vice presidential candidate in 2024. She told Wallace on Sunday night that she did not intend to seek the nomination. For that, we can all be grateful, which is not to say that whoever does get that nomination won’t be just as bad or worse.
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