Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) said on Thursday that she hopes to ease her strict stay-at-home order by the end of the month, and allow gatherings of 10 or more people. While indicating that the order may be lifted in the foreseeable future, Gov. Whitmer did not offer specific data, nor any insight on the state’s system for providing unemployment benefits, which has run into logistical issues during this pandemic.
WATCH: @GovWhitmer told @mlive today that she "hopes" to allow gatherings of 10 people at the end of the month, saying it depends on the number of cases, without providing the number the state is looking for.
— Michigan Rising Action (@MIRisingAction) May 14, 2020
Michiganders deserve a real plan with actual data and metrics. #migov pic.twitter.com/peE5r7k5qj
While her constituents grow frustrated at Gov. Whitmer’s lack of transparency, the Michigan Democrat says that statewide protests are “violent,” “racist,” and “misogynistic.”
"This is not appropriate in a global pandemic, but it's certainly not an exercise of democratic principles where we have free speech," Whitmer said on The View on Wednesday.
Gov. Whitmer added that protests constitute a public threat, one that is not a viable exercise of free speech, and that such demonstrations would lead to her extension of the stay-at-home order:
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tells @TheView protests make it more difficult to reopen state's economy.
— ABC News (@ABC) May 13, 2020
"These protests, in a perverse way, make it likelier that we're going to have to stay in a stay-home posture." https://t.co/nBgq7r5uzu pic.twitter.com/w8GXaQYVxK
While she criticizes protests, video shows that Gov. Whitmer led protests against Michigan’s state legislature in 2012, during her tenure as a state senator:
The Legislature has a role as the voice of the people! If only 2020 @GovWhitmer would listen to 2012 @GretchenWhitmer. #TBT #MILEG pic.twitter.com/VzCsQKCyvH
— MichiganFreedomFund (@MichiganFreedom) May 14, 2020
Gov. Whitmer continues to inject herself into the national spotlight, as a favorite of the cable news circuit, while she lobbies to be Joe Biden’s vice presidential candidate.