Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer accused protesters against her stay-at-home orders of partisan politics that she said will not change how “I run this state.”
In an interview with Fox News Channel, the Democratic governor struck a defiant note, saying she will not apologize for protecting public health despite demonstrators who have been besieging the state capital for weeks.
“But I’ve been focused on doing my job, and I’m going to keep doing that and I’m not going to apologize about that. I’m not changing the way I run this state because of some protests,” she said.
Ms. Whitmer extended her stay-at-home order, one of the nation’s toughest, through at least May 28, making the state one of the last holdouts against the rising tide of localities trying to open back up for business.
Last month she expanded her order to bar Michigan residents, with some exceptions, from visiting family or friends and even their own second homes and to ban public and private gatherings regardless of size or family ties. She also restricted business operations in ways attacked as unscientific micromanaging. For example, large stores must rope off areas that sell, among other things, gardening supplies, even though they are selling other goods under the same roof and have people in the stores.
Ms. Whitmer blamed politics for the backlash in her Monday interview.
“There is a lot of politics at play here, unfortunately,” Whitmer told Fox News. “The protests are very political in nature instead of being focused on the stay-at-home order.”
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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