Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to bar weapons from being brought into the state Capitol building after anti-lockdown protesters showed up with firearms, she told NBC News in a wide-ranging interview.
The Democratic governor’s comments came after gun-toting militia protesters joined a larger group demanding Whitmer reopen swathes of the state’s economy in a demonstration last week. The protesters spilled inside the capitol, where a number of the armed demonstrators confronted police officers and insisted on being allowed onto the statehouse floor as lawmakers debated an extension of her emergency powers.
Under current state law, it is legal to bring firearms inside the Capitol in the open-carry state.
“There are legislators who are wearing bulletproof vests to go to work,” Whitmer told NBC News on Wednesday. “No one should be intimidated by someone who’s bringing in an assault rifle into their workplace. And so there is conversation about changing that law. I think it’s long overdue, and I absolutely support that change. You shouldn’t be intimidated going to be the voice of the people who elected you.”
Whitmer said the protesters were “a relatively small group” that was “loud” and “made an impression” but was “not representative of the general public in Michigan.”
This week, the Michigan Capitol Commission has sought legal advice regarding whether guns could be banned inside the Capitol. Some Michigan Republicans were critical of the gun-toting demonstrators while others said they were not interested in such a ban. Republican control both the Michigan House and Senate.
While Michigan is one of the states hardest hit by COVID-19, Whitmer has faced fierce backlash for her strict stay-at-home mandate, which she extended last month while also easing some provisions. President Donald Trump tweeted Whitmer “should give a little, and put out the fire,” calling the protesters “very good people” who she should “make a deal” with.
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As states across the nation have either launched their initial phase of reopening or plan to do so soon, including Michigan, Whitmer said she and other governors are feeling the heat from those who are demanding that parts of the economy begin to reopen.
“There’s no question that there’s intense pressure to reopen, whether it’s coming from the White House or the people of our state, and that’s playing out all across the country,” she said. “We are Americans. We are used to having our freedoms, and I think in this moment we’ve had to ask people to make sacrifice, and people are getting weary of it.”
“And yet we know that the data tells us COVID-19 is still a very real threat in this country, all across the country,” Whitmer continued. “So while we’ve been able to achieve some flattening of the curve, we are by no means done with COVID-19, and that’s why we’ve got to be really smart.”
A first-term governor, Whitmer has seen her profile rise amid the pandemic. Tasked with leading one of the harder hit states — which happens to be a pivotal 2020 swing state — Joe Biden has named her as a possible running mate while Trump has both derided and praised her.
Asked if the speculation she could be Biden’s running mate have contributed to the intensity of the protests against her, Whitmer said, “I think that you could conclude that there is a definite political component here.”
“These protests were more like political rallies, and when you’ve got the partisan propaganda,” she said in the interview. “You saw the signs that people made. This was a political statement, because Michigan is an important state and the 2020 presidential election is looming. It really felt more like a political rally than anything else.”
As Michigan Republicans sought to strip her of emergency powers, Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., filed a lawsuit claiming her restrictions have been unconstitutional. Meanwhile, Attorney General Bill Barr has said the Justice Department would consider suing states where he believes stay-at-home orders have gone too far, and the Justice Department has already backed lawsuits similar to Mitchell’s.
One of the more vocal governors on the need for Congress to pass emergency relief funding to the states, Whitmer also said it was too soon to say whether she would be willing to back the removal of legal liability for companies that hurry to bring back workers as state’s loosen restrictions — something GOP leaders have said must be included in order for them to support such additional aid.
But she said making “sure that everyone has the incentive to keep people safe” is a necessity.
“And I can tell you, (businesses), as much as anyone, want to make sure that we get this right, because they don’t want their workforce to get sick,” she added. “They don’t want the public to be afraid to come in when it’s a public-facing type of enterprise.”
On the sexual assault allegation former Biden staffer Tara Reade has made against the former vice president, which he has denied, Whitmer, a assault survivor, said she knows “it’s important that we give women the ability to tell their stories and that we listen to them.”
“And then they also need to be vetted,” she added. “I really don’t like having to weigh in every time there is another story that a woman tells. I understand why people ask. I get that. I’m an office-holder and I’m a survivor, but I think that every story is different. Every woman deserves to be heard, but we also have a duty to vet it and to do our due diligence and give people due process and make our own judgments.”
Whitmer herself was the subject of a recent Saturday Night Live sketch where Cecily Strong played the governor. Whitmer said she found the bit to be “very funny,” though she sent Strong a package of Michigan beers because the “one thing that they got wrong” was having Strong drink a Canadian beer, LaBatt Blue.
