Gretchen Whitmer
speaker
389 appearances
16 recordings
10 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 17 Apr
Gretchen Whitmer’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 8 in all, peaking in Feb 2026 with 3.
Appearances
You know, when I was at the White House in that folder in that infamous picture, you Inside that were real stories from Michiganders about how hard the tariffs have already been on their families, on their businesses, small businesses alike. And that's who I'm fighting for.
And so to see that, to hear that, you could see why, you know, there's no way on earth I was doing anything beyond that press conference yesterday. because I think so much of what they're doing is damaging not just here and now, but they're going to have long-term consequences in this country.
And that's precisely why I think it's important that we are showing up, we are locking arms, and we are the party that is fighting for the average hard-working person in this country.
We are and I think that no one is above the law. The thought that we've got an administration that is just blatantly violating court orders should, I think, scare everybody. This is a very serious moment. You know, at the end of the day, I hope that we finally see some backbone out of some of the Republicans in Congress, you know, to stand up to the courts to enforce their orders.
I mean, there are a lot of people that aren't doing their jobs to protect the foundations of this country. And many of us are fighting the fights that we can. But ultimately, the courts have got to be able to have the last word. And this undermines, I think, the foundations of our country on every level when this happens.
Well, as Lovett said, there are no corners in the Oval Office, right? I was brought in for what I thought was going to be a one-on-one meeting. It became very clear as soon as I walked in the room that that was not the case. I grabbed one of his staff people. I said, what is happening here? And he said... He's just going to sign executive order and then you're going to have your meeting.
And then all of that transpired. And I gravitated from the front of the room to the back of the room. And that's when that picture was taken. But I also left the room. No one reported that. I left the room to go talk to my staff person and said, we got to get word out because the stuff that's going on in there, I cannot be associated with that. I do not endorse that. I'm not here for that.
But I had to stay and have my meeting after that was done. You know, it is not easy to navigate these times. But one of the things that I've learned is I've got to put the people of Michigan first over my self-interest, over maybe what people assume are going to be my political interests. The people of Michigan come first. I took an oath to them. When I was in the Senate,
You know, we were in the minority. I was the Senate minority leader, and we had Republican control of both chambers of the legislature and in the governor's office. We got our teeth kicked in every day. We, of course, I had colleagues who, when they finally wanted to do Medicaid expansion, a Republican governor wanted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to Michiganders.
Some of my Democratic colleagues said, hell no, let's not do it. Let's make him beg for it. Let's deliver him a loss, and then they'll have to come back. And I didn't wanna take that risk because I knew hundreds of thousands of Michiganders might get their healthcare from this. And so I went to work to bring my Democratic colleagues along.
It wasn't easy, but at the end of the day, that's the job, that is the job that I have. And if we Democrats, want to be successful in future elections, we can't forget that. We got to give each other the grace to fight on the battlefield and lock arms because these are high stakes moments in this country as we think about all the stuff that's just happened in merely 100 days.
You know, I have talked to the president about tariffs, which obviously we don't agree on. I have talked to the president about Asian carp that pose a real threat to the Great Lakes. I have talked to the president about ice storm victims in northern Michigan, who I'm hoping we can get some help from FEMA to support.
I have not had that direct conversation on this subject yet, but I'm not afraid to do that.
Yeah, whenever I get the opportunity, I use every minute of that to cover a lot of different issues. So this is, I think, a very important one that you're raising. There's no question. And I will continue whenever I have opportunities to make sure that I'm covering as much as I can. No question.
I did not get much of a chance to talk about it on Tuesday, but I did say that the big three and the auto industry is hurting in Michigan because of the uncertainty around tariffs. Certainly, this newest policy might be somewhat helpful on paper, but
let's be clear, the uncertainty that has been created by variety of policies without a stated goal and an obvious solution here is what is creating paralysis, what is creating animosity with our northern neighbors. Canada, who is intertwined with the Michigan economy, is all across the country, that's true, but especially in Michigan. And Mexico treating our allies like adversaries.
I mean, there's a big cost to all of this. And it is going to be borne by the American consumer. It is going to be borne by the person who gets laid off because their company doesn't make the investment that they had planned to. It's going to be borne by small businesses. They can't stock up storerooms like some businesses have been able to in preparation for all these ups and downs.
This chaos with this tariff policy has undermined the American economy and has taken money out of people's pockets, and that's the worst part of it. So a couple of tweaks every few days doesn't fix the problem. It actually perpetuates the pain.
No. I'm sorry to say that. I mean, I'll just be blunt. I can tell you that I know that the auto companies are talking with the White House. I'm talking with them, too. I know that they are talking with Secretary Lutnick and Commerce. Obviously, they've had some impact and that they've reevaluated some things. But
I do believe that there is a core belief that tariff, that messing with tariff policy is going to be good for America. But it's not based on any, I think, economic prowess or strategy. And I think that's the biggest concern is that if there was a goal, if there was a new rule that was going to last, American business might be able to figure a way to work with it.
Showing 341–360 of 389 · page 18 of 20
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