Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Sunday labeled former President Donald Trump a “charlatan” and pointed to pandemic era job losses when ABC questioned why his message is resonating better with voters than the Democrats’ agenda.

“The economy, immigration, by far those people who were polled trust Donald Trump. So what you’re saying about look, he didn’t do the job back then, they don’t think that and they think he can do it now better than Kamala Harris,” ABC’s Martha Raddatz told Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.

The three Democratic governors of so-called “blue wall” states discussed polling that shows Trump in a virtual tie with the vice president with just three weeks before Election Day, and Raddatz questioned why Democrats’ message seems to be falling flat.

Former Pres. Trump is a “charlatan,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tells @MarthaRaddatz.

“He’s convinced people that he is strong when he's actually very weak. He told Michiganders he wouldn't let a single auto plant close under his watch — six closed.” https://t.co/Aj70VhKw4t pic.twitter.com/klL5YTjrTV

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 20, 2024

“His message is getting through on immigration and on the economy, yours is not,” Raddatz said.

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Instead of explaining why that is, Whitmer went on the attack with a list of grievances against the 45^th POTUS.

“He’s a charlatan,” Whitmer said. “He’s convinced people he is strong when he’s actually very weak. He told Michiganders he wouldn’t let a single auto plant close under his watch – six closed. We lost 280,000 jobs in Michigan.

“He just came into Detroit and denigrated the city of Detroit, shows his ignorance. He doesn’t appreciate what the renaissance actually is in the city of Detroit,” she continued. “He denigrated auto workers, saying children could do their jobs. He likes to pretend he’s tough, but in the reality he’s weak.”

Raddatz steered the interview back to the voters, and the hard reality for Democrats: “Again, people are still supporting Donald Trump despite what you’re saying. His message is getting through.”

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Whitmer’s comments come as Harris has worked to portray Trump as “one of the biggest losers of manufacturing in American history” while largely ignoring his efforts to reverse a decades-long industry trend of auto jobs moving overseas and the unprecedented impact of a worldwide pandemic.

“The number of jobs in vehicle and parts manufacturing in Michigan was about 175,000 when Trump took office in January 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics” cited by The Detroit News. “It dropped to 171,300 in February 2020, a decrease of 2.2%,” as the first deaths from the COVID pandemic hit the U.S.

Whitmer issued a public health order in March 2020 that shuttered Michigan’s auto plants for two months, and by the end of Trump’s term auto jobs were at 166,300, a total decline of 5%, according to The News.

The job numbers have since dwindled further to 165,800 under the Biden-Harris administration, and Trump has campaigned heavily in Michigan on a promise to reverse the losses.

A Kamala Harris win, Trump argues, would only lead to further job losses as a result of the government-forced transition to electric vehicles promoted by the Biden-Harris administration.

State Sen. Jim Runestad told The News that the job numbers from Trump’s first term were marred by an economic “meltdown” during the pandemic, but he believes Trump’s plan to impose strategic tariffs, reduce energy costs, and his consumer focused approach to EVs “could certainly reverse the decline.”

While Dodge shuttered its Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in 2017 as it discontinued the Viper sports car, it shifted employees to other locations. A GM plant in Warren also stopped producing transmissions in 2019 to produce mask during the pandemic, as well.

Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, has pushed back on the jobs claims from Democrats, noting his administration created more new manufacturing jobs “in his first 37 months” than the Biden-Harris administration.

“President Trump will end Kamala Harris’ disastrous Green New Deal policies and her administration’s war on energy, which contributed to the inflation mess we’ve found ourselves in during Harris’s time in office,” Trump’s Michigan spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita told The News. “Under President Trump, we will unleash American energy and give the auto industry the tools to be bigger, better and stronger.”

The reality is it’s not difficult to understand why Trump’s message on the auto industry is resonating, as 37,000 Michiganders stand to lose their jobs if the Biden-Harris administration meets its goals.

New emissions standards from the administration are “going to feel and function like a ban” on gas-powered vehicles, according to the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, which notes no current  models of gas cars meet the new standards.

“The Biden-Harris Administration estimates that, under the (new emissions) rule, conventional gas-powered vehicles could make up no more than one-third of newly built vehicles by 2032,” according to a recent report from the American First Policy Institute, which highlighted how fewer moving parts in EVs translates into jobs lost.

The report notes Harris previously sponsored the Zero Emissions Vehicles Act as a U.S. senator that would have required 100% of new car sales to be emissions free by 2040.

“If EVs rise to 67% of U.S. vehicle sales the model estimates that almost 123,000 net auto-manufacturing jobs will be lost,” according to the report. “If the government completely bans the sale of conventional gas-powered cars and hybrid vehicles – as policymakers like Vice President Harris have previously proposed – the model estimates 191,000 auto manufacturing jobs would be lost.”

In Michigan, the loss would total more than 37,000 manufacturing jobs, far more than any other state.

Trump has promised to “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,” thereby “saving the U.S. auto industry from complete obliteration.”

He insists EVs should be available for folks who want them, but has vowed to preserve gas-powered vehicles as an option for those who don’t.

A survey from The Detroit News and WDIV in July shows “people in Michigan are more aligned at this point with Donald Trump than they are the Biden-Harris administration on” EVs, Oakland University political scientist Dave Dulio told The News.

That survey found 71% of Michiganders have no plans to buy an EV, and 56% oppose using tax dollars to force the transition. Another poll the same month found 63% of Michigan residents oppose a gas car ban, and 68% said it was an “important factor” for their vote.