Trump slams Michigan governor
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump, who played down the coronavirus pandemic from its onset, criticised Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Saturday for her policies to curb the outbreak, drawing shouts of “lock her up” from a rally crowd.
Trump made the remarks during the first stop of a three-day trip through critical swing states, some of which he won in 2016 but that polls show are supporting Democratic rival Joe Biden this year.
The president held large rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan despite rising coronavirus cases in both states. Supporters who attended the rallies did not maintain social distance. Some wore masks, some did not.
At a rally in Muskegon, Michigan, Trump targeted Whitmer several times, criticising the state’s rules to stop the spread of the coronavirus, calling her “dishonest,” and making light of a right-wing plot uncovered by the FBI to kidnap her. “They said she was threatened,” Trump said. “And she blamed me.”
The president has been critical of Whitmer, who was a candidate to be Biden’s vice-presidential nominee, for months.
“Hopefully you’ll be sending her packing pretty soon,” Trump said.
The crowd’s chant of “Lock her up!” referring to Whitmer reprised the chants that Trump supporters often direct at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016.
Whitmer responded on Twitter to the episode. “This is exactly the rhetoric that has put me, my family, and other government officials’ lives in danger while we try to save the lives of fellow Americans,” she wrote.
Lee Chatfield, the Republican speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, also commented on Twitter: “Trump didn’t chant ‘lock her up’ about our Governor. But others did and it was wrong. She was literally just targeted. Let’s debate differences. Let’s win elections. But not that.”
Biden, a former vice-president, has hammered Trump for his response to the pandemic, which has killed more than 219 000 people in the United States, the highest death toll in the world. He said in a statement on Saturday he planned to unite the country to fight the virus if he wins.
“All President Trump is offering the people of Michigan is more lies and distractions – no plan to get the virus under control, no strategy for pulling our economy out of this recession, no vision for uniting the country,” Biden said.
His campaign called Trump’s remarks about Whitmer “toxic attacks”, and said his conduct “reflects his own insecurity and envy of Governor Whitmer’s respected record of leadership in a time of crisis”.
Trump sought to turn Biden’s criticism around on Saturday by saying that his rival would impede the recovery from the outbreak.
Biden, who has stepped up travel in recent weeks after keeping a reduced schedule because of the pandemic, remained in his home state of Delaware on Saturday.
His running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, is also eschewing travel for a few days after an aide came down with Covid-19.
US presidential elections are determined by electoral votes, allotted to US states and territories. Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes, Michigan has 16 and Arizona has 11. Nevada has six electoral votes.
Trump, who usually avoids wearing a mask, repeated on Saturday that the country is turning the corner on the disease, shortly after the number of US cases crossed 8 million, rising by 1 million in less than a month.