The governor of Michigan — whose strict coronavirus lockdown policies have caused many non humane revolts within the state — is taking heat after her husband seemed to have flouted a number of her own advice about holiday travel.
Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer pushed variety of the strictest regulations and laws imposes within the country as Michigan became engulfed in cases and deaths, prompting widespread protests by some residents, including people who stormed the state assembly house of electables last month bearing nooses, swastikas and guns screaming, “Lock her up!”
Last Monday, Whitmer Gretchen announced that she was lifting some lockdown restrictions in areas before Memorial Day weekend.
But “if you don’t sleep in these regions … think long and hard before you are taking a visit into them,” she said.
“A small spike could put the hospital system in desperate straits pretty quickly. That’s precisely why we’re asking everyone to continue doing their part. Don’t descend on [waterfront] Traverse City from all regions of the state.”
Three days later, a marina owner wrote on Facebook that the governor’s husband, Marc Mallory, had asked its workers to urge their nearby boat within the water before Memorial Day , a report said Monday.
The vacation property that the governor and her husband own is about 25 minutes form Traverse City , the Detroit News said. The couple’s main residence is in Lansing.
“This morning, i used to be out working when the office called me, there was a gentleman on hold who wanted his boat within the water before the weekend,” NorthShore Dock LLC owner Tad Dowker wrote Thursday on Facebook, consistent with the Detroit News, which said the posting has since been made private.
“Being Memorial weekend and therefore the incontrovertible fact that we started working three weeks late means there’s no chance this is often getting to happen,’’ Dowker wrote, the paper said.
“Well our office personnel had explained this to the person and he replied, ‘I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?’ ”
The docking company later said on its Facebook page that Mallory was respectful when told it couldn’t accommodate him, consistent with the News.
Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, noted to the News that Whitmer had urged state residents to not flock to Traverse City , and “Yet, what did her family attempt to do?
“In the military , we’ve a practice that the leaders get in line for chow last behind everyone else within the unit,” he said. “Here is that the leader of our state. … Her family is trying to chop people in line.”
Whitmer’s spokeswoman, Tiffany Brown, didn’t deny the claims involving her boss’s husband to the News but said the governor’s office wouldn’t be responding to “every rumor that’s spread online.”
The governor landed in President Trump’s cross hairs in March when she complained about the federal government’s response amid the pandemic.
“I love Michigan, one among the explanations we do such an excellent job for them during this horrible Pandemic. Yet your Governor, Gretchen “Half” Whitmer is much in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude!” he tweeted after her comments.
Whitmer confirmed last week that she is in talks with former vice chairman and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to become his campaigner .
