They had no control of the agenda with Trump (oh, what a surprise) and if she had a good answer for what she would have done differently on tariffs, she wouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Whitmer also said she hadn’t “thought through” how she’d handle tariffs differently from Trump, only that they should be used as a “scalpel.”
A national Democratic strategist said, “It is a massive indictment on Whitmer and her team’s judgment to, first, not have an answer on the tariff question and then go the White House and get absolutely played by Donald Trump to the point she is caught in the Oval Office as he signs one of his revenge and retribution executive orders and says 2020 was rigged.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/disaster-gretchen-whitmers-talk-tariffs-meeting-trump-anger-fellow-dem-rcna200530Whitmer would have been one of my top choices had there been a primary in 2024 but I was mostly going on her ability to win in Michigan (admittedly no small thing) and her personality. When she started this pivot to “bipartisanship” right after the election I thought it was standard stuff, but it’s malpractice that she and her team did not update the playbook once the carnage started. If you’re a senior in Michigan worried about Social Security, how did yesterday feel? A government worker who is out of work, an individual who fears for himself and/or his family because of Stephen Miller’s deportation strategy, a teacher or a medical professional who is freaked out by what is happening with the DOE or HHS or just an average American appalled by who Trump is and what he has done to our country. None of it apparently mattered to Team Whitmer. She’s in the “bipartisan” lane and she’s sticking to it.
Yesterday was an exercise in empty-headed performative politics by Whitmer. It was a sad day for her and, given her stature, for the Democratic Party.
= new reply since forum marked as read