Whitmer plot shows abuse of female officials

Angry over COVID-19 restrictions, people from several states met in Ohio in June 2020 to plot ways to overthrow government “tyrants,” prosecutors say. Within a week, they chose Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as a target.

The plan, as outlined in a federal court indictment, was to kidnap Whitmer at her family’s northern Michigan vacation home and take her to Wisconsin for a “trial.” Over several months, they held training exercises and conducted surveillance on Whitmer’s home in preparation for what a group leader called “a snatch and grab.”

“Just grab the b- - - -,” Adam Fox was recorded telling a confidential informant working with the FBI, prosecutors say.

Though it was interrupted by authorities, the alleged plot — for which four men will face trial in a Michigan courtroom beginning Tuesday — represented an increasing level of anger and violence in U.S. politics that disproportionately targets female elected officials.

In transcripts of recorded conversations, hours of which prosecutors are expected to present at trial, the use of gendered slurs and men discussing things like “taking” Whitmer indicate their rage goes beyond her policies, said Rutgers University professor Mona Lena Krook, who authored a 2020 book on global violence against women in politics.

“It’s like ‘Who does she think she is trying to tell us what to do?’ ” Krook said. “There is a sense they’re trying to delegitimize her because they don’t feel like she has the right, that she’s allowed to be there because she’s a woman … I think they take it very personally.”

Researchers for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue measured online abuse of congressional candidates in the 2020 election, including direct or indirect threats and promoting violence or demeaning a person based on identity such as race or gender. They found female Democrats received 10 times more abusive comments on Facebook than their male peers, while Republican women received twice as many as their male counterparts.

Female lawmakers who are also ethnic minorities are particularly likely to face abuse, the study found. Among those targeted most often were Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Alexandria OcasioCortez of New York.

A State and Local Government Review survey of mayors in communities with over 30,000 residents found 79 percent of mayors reported being a victim of harassment, threats or other psychological abuse, and 13 percent reported instances of physical violence. Female mayors were more than twice as likely as male mayors to face psychological abuse, and nearly three times as likely to experience physical violence.

Amanda Hunter, executive director of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which works to increase women’s representation in politics, traces much of the change to the rise of social media. Today, it’s relatively easy to reach someone via Twitter, Facebook, email or other methods.

That’s created another barrier to running for office, said Hunter.

“This is now another decision that women have to factor in when deciding whether or not to run for office, if they want to contend with weighing potential security threats against them or perhaps even their families,” she said.

For Whitmer, the abuse continued even after the kidnapping plot.

After one of the men pleaded guilty last year, she told a judge in a victim impact statement that she has seen herself hung in effigy during a protest and heavily armed people near her home.

“Things will never be the same,” she wrote.

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