Lansing — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Monday she supports President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee “100%” and believes he can win Michigan in November against Republican Donald Trump.
Whitmer, who’s considered a rising star among Democrats and who serves as co-chairwoman of Biden’s reelection campaign, issued a statement after the national news outlet Politico suggested she possibly had said that Michigan “was no longer winnable for Biden” after he made a number of missteps in a debate Thursday night against Trump.
A Whitmer aide, on the condition that they not be identified, said the comment, which was sourced by Politico to “someone close to a potential 2028 Whitmer rival,” was false. Likewise, on the social media platform X, Whitmer added that anyone who claims she “would say that we can’t win Michigan is full of s—.”
“I am proud to support Joe Biden as our nominee and I am behind him 100% in the fight to defeat Donald Trump,” Whitmer said in a statement Monday. “Not only do I believe Joe can win Michigan, I know he can because he’s got the receipts: he’s lowered health care costs, brought back manufacturing jobs and is committed to restoring the reproductive freedom women lost under Donald Trump.”
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, said she spoke to Whitmer about her Friday call with Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and reiterated that the governor never said Michigan was “unwinnable.”
“We know what needs to be done to win Michigan,” Dingell said. “She’s out there doing everything she can. She’s working her a– off.”
Dingell also blasted the Whitmer rival who tried to spin Whitmer’s conversation with Dillon in an effort to “knife” the second-term Michigan governor. “Women don’t like people that go after each other,” Dingell said.
Biden’s lackluster performance at his first debate against Trump of the 2024 campaign has spurred some political pundits and The New York Times editorial board to urge Biden, who’s 81 years old, to step aside. They’ve floated Whitmer and others, including Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, as potential replacements for Biden if the nomination were somehow put up for grabs at the party’s convention in August.
However, Biden has shown no signs that he’s seriously contemplating getting out of the race. And Democratic operatives in Michigan threw water on the idea of Biden not being their party’s presidential nominee with just over four months until Election Day.
One top Michigan Democrat who has spoken with Whitmer in recent days said Monday the governor has been trying to tamp down a push by donors for her to consider entering the race.
This Democratic leader, who spoke to The Detroit News on condition of anonymity, said Whitmer is so locked in to supporting the Biden-Harris ticket that she won’t entertain the question of replacing Biden on the ticket should the president step aside, frustrating some donors and others.
Those donors are concerned that, unlike Newsom, Whitmer does not have a plan in place ahead of the Aug. 19-22 Democratic National Convention in Chicago to court delegates to vote for her in balloting there, the source said. But that lack of preparation, the source said, is another indicator that she doesn’t want to make the move.
Michael Radtke, a Democratic political consultant based in Michigan’s third largest county, Macomb County, said Biden remains the best choice to take on Trump.
“At this point, you are going to go to war with the army that you have,” Radtke said. “We’re trying to save democracy.”
Likewise, Jonathan Kinloch, a Wayne County commissioner and the chairman of the 13th Congressional District Democratic Party, said people need to stop “chit-chatting and chattering” about the Democratic nomination. The delegates who decide the nomination belong to Biden, Kinloch said.
“Out of his dead hands will that nomination be taken away … Period.” Kinloch said of Biden.
In 2020, Biden defeated Trump, the incumbent president at the time, winning Michigan by 3 percentage points, 51%-48%. In a campaign speech in North Carolina on Friday, Biden vowed that he can do the job of president for another four years. The crowd repeatedly chanted “four more years.”
Whitmer is a former state lawmaker and second-term governor. She gained national prominence while clashing with Trump over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
She has repeatedly said that she expects the race between Biden and Trump in Michigan to be close this fall.
Republicans in Michigan trumpeted the comment that was attributed to Whitmer by someone in Politico on Monday.
“Michiganders have been feeling the effects of Biden’s failed presidency for years now, evident by the looming threat of his electric vehicle agenda and the harsh reality that paychecks don’t stretch the same way they did under President Trump,” said Victoria LaCivita, the Trump campaign’s spokeswoman in Michigan.
“After seeing the clear difference between strength and weakness, even Whitmer knows that Democrats are doomed in Michigan — just like they are nationwide.”
Republican strategists see an opportunity to put vulnerable Democrats on the defense. The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s candidate in Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick, cut an ad targeting Democratic Sen. Bob Casey for defending Biden as “prepared” to do the job and saying he has confidence in Biden’s leadership.
“Casey knew about Biden’s condition,” the ad says. “When will Casey finally tell the truth?”
The National Republican Congressional Committee released a memo Monday citing the Politico story and asking whether Michigan Democrats in swing U.S. House districts agree with Biden or Whitmer’s purported take on whether he can win the state.
Whitmer has previously vowed to complete her four-year term as governor. She has a book set to be published on July 9 titled “TRUE GRETCH: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between” that has already included a new blitz of national media attention for her.
Biden considered Whitmer, among others, to be his running mate in 2020 before picking Harris. On the campaign trail in Michigan, the president has referred to Whitmer as the best governor in the country.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
mburke@detroitnews.com
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Publish date : 2024-07-01 17:00:32
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