Gretchen Whitmer accused Trump of inciting domestic terrorism on Sunday, in reference to a kidnapping plot against her recently stopped by the FBI.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has called on President Donald Trump to stop “inspiring and incentivizing and inciting” domestic terrorism against her, in a plea that came just 10 days after the FBI revealed a right-wing plot to abduct her. Her statement, made Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, comes after Trump told supporters at a Saturday rally in Muskegon, Michigan, to “be careful of” the governor and their state’s attorney general, and after he criticized Whitmer’s attempts to stem the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Michigan. Each time the president attacked the governor, his supporters took up a “lock her up” chant. It’s not a new theme for Trump: He’s long made a point of going after Whitmer, both before and after the FBI arrested six men for planning to kidnap and potentially murder her. In March, he told Vice President Mike Pence, head of the White House coronavirus task force, not to call “the woman in Michigan” because Whitmer criticized his response to the pandemic. Immediately after the kidnapping plot was revealed in early October, Trump sent three tweets about Whitmer, briefly noting that he condemns “ANY extreme violence,” while also accusing her of doing “a terrible job” as governor and criticizing her for not thanking him personally for the FBI’s role in stopping a domestic terrorism scheme. Trump has also attacked Whitmer using nearly the same rhetoric as the members of the far-right militia — who called themselves the Wolverine Watchmen — who were arrested. “[Whitmer] wants to be a dictator in Michigan,” Trump told a Fox Business host Friday, “and they can’t stand her.
