In her book True Gretch, released Tuesday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer once again apologizes for violating her own Covid social distancing executive orders in May 2021.
Her explanation begins on page 134 of the slight 158-page read, published by Simon and Schuster and retailing for $26.99. The book is subtitled “What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything In Between.”
“I’ll end this chapter with one of my biggest flubs in politics,” Whitmer and her collaborator Lisa Dickey wrote. “It was an own goal, as they say in soccer, a totally avoidable mistake that was mine and mine alone.”
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The Midwesterner founder Kyle Olson broke the story while reporting at Breitbart.
“Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) hit the bar this weekend and violated her own coronavirus orders, according to a photo Breitbart News has exclusively obtained,” Olson reported.
“Whitmer and a large group of friends, including her appointed chief operations officer, Tricia Foster, visited the Landshark in East Lansing, violating her restaurant orders in the process, according to a photo one of the attendees posted on Facebook,” he continued.
The story was picked up by multiple outlets, with many of them pointing out Whitmer’s willingness to violate her own executive orders while sternly enforcing them for everybody else.
“In May of 2021, as the pandemic was easing, we were planning to relax restrictions on gatherings in restaurants and bars,” Whitmer explains in True Gretch. “But just before that happened, I went out with a few friends to a fun dive bar in East Lansing, the Landshark. We gathered in the basement, and at first, we were sitting at several tables in compliance with the existing rules: no more than six people at table, and tables had to be at least six feet apart.”
However, Whitmer had issued her most recent Gathering and Face Mask executive order only one week earlier, on May 15, 2021, which states:
Gatherings are prohibited at food service establishments, whether indoor or outdoor, unless:
Consumption of food or beverages is permitted only in a designated dining area where patrons are seated, groups of patrons are separated by at least 6 feet, no more than 6 patrons are seated together (at a table, booth, or group of fixed seats), and groups of patrons do not intermingle
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Whitmer’s group did not wear masks. A group photograph was taken and posted on Facebook.
“Not surprisingly, this caused a minor uproar,” the 2024 Whitmer continued. “As well it should have! I knew I’d screwed up, so the next day I made a statement, ‘Yesterday, I went with friends to a local restaurant,’ I said. ‘As more people arrived, the tables were pushed together. Because we were all vaccinated, we didn’t stop to think about it. In retrospect, I should have thought about it. I am human. I made a mistake, and I apologize.'”
As noted by Whitmer, her public apology echoes California Gavin Newsom’s apology after revelations he was violating his one Covid edicts by dining with friends at the French Laundry: “We’re all human. We all fall short sometimes.”