Governor Gretchen Whitmer says President Donald Trump would break a promise he made to her if he pardons two men who were convicted of conspiring to kidnap her. Whitmer spoke with Michigan Public Radio’s Rick Pluta at the Detroit Regional Chamber Conference on Mackinac Island. He started by asking the governor what she makes of these possible pardons.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer: Well, I think anything short of condemning political violence does a disservice to everyone. I'll be honest with you, I talked to the President about a month ago and he asked me how I'd feel about this and I said I think it would be the wrong decision. I would oppose it and he said “okay, I'll drop it.” Now, we see this revelation. So, I'm not sure how to process it. I will just point out that when the man shot at the President when he was on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, I was one of the first office holders on either side of the aisle to condemn it. Because anything short of condemnation creates a dangerous space for people that are sworn an oath to do the work of the public. We don't take up arms and harm one another. And so, I'm going to make my thoughts on this known to the White House again. And I hope that it's not an action that they take.
RP: Do you think he's serious?
GW: I don't know. When I talked to him before, we had a thoughtful conversation about it and he said he'd drop it. So, I'm not sure what to make of this new revelation, but I will be reaching out over the weekend.
RP: A federal court issued a ruling on tariffs, slowing down some of them, not all of them. What's your thinking about what you saw from that ruling and what are you hoping from what's ahead regarding those sorts of trade decisions?
GW: Well, as we talk, we're at the Mackinac Policy Conference with the Detroit Regional Chamber. You can feel the stress that business has with regard to all the tariff chaos. We know that Michigan is uniquely vulnerable under these circumstances. We're big manufacturers, we've got huge agriculture, and we're heavy in the autos when it comes to manufacturing. Those three things make the Michigan economy more vulnerable when you've got this tariff chaos. I can't unilaterally impact that — that’s coming out of the White House — but I've been advocating and I'm continuing to do the work that we can in Michigan, whether it is up-skilling our population, diversifying our economy, and Selfridge was a big part of doing that. These are the things that I'm going to stay focused on.
RP: This conference, as you pointed out, is businesspeople. It's also not-for-profits. It's also, some unions are even here. What are you hearing from the people at this conference about what they would like you, what they would like the state to do to deal with the situation that we're in?
GW: I think people are feeling pretty good about the state and where we are headed, the trajectory that we're on. I mean, that is one aspect. And then you've got all the chaos coming out of Washington D.C., which is creating uncertainty. And uncertainty breeds paralysis, right? You're going to make an investment, whether you're a homeowner who needs a new roof, but isn't sure what's going to happen in your employment because of tariffs and you see people getting laid off. If you're a businessperson who wants to hire, but is actually scaling back because you need to have your cash flow protected. Paralysis happens, and we're seeing some of that. So, what I can do at the state level, we are going to do: building our infrastructure, making sure that our kids can read and landing a chip plant. These are the things that we could do that'll diversify our economy and strengthen Michigan. That's where I want to keep my focus and try to bring about some rationality to the policy in Washington, D.C. I don't know if I can do that, but I'm going to try.
RP: We'll leave it there. Governor Whitmer, thank you so much for your time.
GW: Thank you.
You can listen to the interview audio above.
