Gretchen Whitmer
Appearances
Apple News Today
What to know about RFK Jr.’s plan to research autism
What was going through your mind at that moment? And it was, I don't want my picture taken. That's all it was.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
I do have a Helix mattress. Don Lux? Wow. Boy, does this guy listen. Look at that. Talks for a living? No, listens for a living.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
and falling asleep but instead right on my stupid fucking face i love my don lux though so comfortable uh my partner uh was out of town uh last night and so oh man did i watch four hours of youtubes i just watched four hours of youtubes in my extremely comfortable don lux bed with my extremely comfortable linen sheets honestly sounds like a dream it was awesome It's a great night's sleep.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
Don Lux. Helix. Great brand. Great company. Doing great work with these mattresses.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
I'm really getting into the science of sleeping. Well, no, none of that. I'm really interested in, in, in helix intuitive understanding of relativity, like not just to know how it works, but to have it feel intuitive. So unintuitive, you know, It's unintuitive, the speed of light. Why is there a speed limit? I'm being around.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
I'll tell you what's not relative, the quality of the sleep you're going to get on this Helix mattress.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
Well, I'll just start with this. Selfridge is a really important linchpin in Michigan's bases. We've got four. Selfridge is the place where we have our fighter mission. The A-10s have been scheduled to be retired. And so I have spent every year since I've been governor trying to get recapitalized a fighter mission.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
Through the four years, to be candid, under the Biden administration, I was trying to get this done. We did get tankers, which is great, but it's not a fighter mission. So As soon as I had the opportunity for the first conversation at the National Governors Association dinner, I took the chance to say this is important.
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Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
And ever since then, I've had a number of meetings and phone calls just to try to get this over the finish line. And I'm grateful that they were interested. I know they care about Michigan. I think defense is a place where they see a need. And It took a lot of work to get there, but it's the right thing for Michigan.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
There's no question that recapitalizing this, it's got $850 million impact on the state of Michigan. 30,000 jobs are connected to Selfridge. And so this is a BFD. And I'm glad that we got over the finish line. It doesn't mean I've abandoned any of my values. It doesn't mean that I'm not going to stand my ground and fight where we have to. But this is one of those moments where as a public servant,
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
You're reminded your job is to put service above self. And that's what it was all about.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
Yeah, I mean, it's unconscionable. So many of the actions that they've taken in 100 days, the amount of damage that has been done. You know, I continue to stay grounded in talking to Michiganders, and I can tell you that the tariffs are taking a toll. Job losses, concerns about, you know, being able to afford an F-150.
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Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
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Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
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Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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,
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Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
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Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
I have not had that direct conversation on this subject yet, but I'm not afraid to do that.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
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.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
No, I mean, I don't. They've made a commitment. This is, you know, there are Republicans and Democrats that have been working hard to get this done. They got it done. He got great, you know, headlines here in Michigan. I mean, people are thrilled with this. So, no. And, you know, my job is to fight for Michiganders. And that means everything.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
You know, John, it means making tough decisions in a pandemic that ultimately people threaten to kill me. I'm still going to put Michiganders first. It means showing up at the Oval Office and maybe having people, you know, pundits take shots at me for being there. But that's putting the people of Michigan first.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
I can tell you right now that the people in Macomb County are often the ones that get polled whenever there's a presidential election. They're the bellwether in a bellwether state. They don't care whether or not I held a folder in a picture. They don't care. They care if they're going to have a job. They care that their governor's fighting for them.
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Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
And I think that's the really interesting difference here is the media in Michigan has been, it's all been positive. The reactions, not the media reactions, but the coverage, the people, the reaction of the real people on the ground.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
And it's one of the things that real frustrate me about sometimes the national pundits is they tell Michiganders what they're thinking without actually talking to Michiganders. And I think that's something that we have to educate people on because, man, if you're ever going to be able to fight for and earn the respect of people on the ground, you got to be there with them.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
I do. I mean, I think I'm glad I told JB, I don't know, a couple months ago, I'm glad he's out there. I'm glad he's fighting. You know what? I'm really glad that AOC and Bernie are out there fighting. I think it's going to be important. We got to be Avengers style, you know, every one of our voices matters. We have to work together.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
And ultimately, we're going to have to bring all these different groups of people that we're talking to that we represent together as well. So, I don't fault anyone outside of Michigan for not understanding what's going on the ground.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
I just take umbrage with anyone who assumes they know what's going on the ground without actually asking because the real story is what's going on in real people's lives.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
Yeah, I do think that that's a concern for a lot of people. If you're not worried about putting food on the table, yes. But if you're worried about putting food on the table or paying your electric bill, it's hard to think about anything else. And that's one of the things that as I campaigned for
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
Kamala Harris and Joe Biden before and Barack Obama before, I can tell you that, and Hillary Clinton, I can't skip Hillary Clinton, of course. We know that the personal economy is always going to be front and center for people. And that's why we got to stay focused on how are Democrats making people's lives better. That's what I've done in Michigan.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
I think that's why I've been able to carry this really swing state by double digits in two elections. We can't lose sight of that.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
Oh yeah, we're going to fight like hell to protect people. You know, the Medicaid cuts could be devastating if they go through. And we are working really hard. We've got a bipartisan group of Congress people that we are putting pressure on. 40% of the Michigan budget is federal.
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Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
Rural hospitals will close if those Medicaid cuts go through to pay for, you know, that tax break that no one's calling for. So yeah, we're going to fight on all these battlegrounds. I'll also say I'm going to continue to try to get help to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp.
Pod Save America
Trump's War on Your Kids' Toys
I am going to try to get that FEMA declaration for people in northern Michigan who were devastated by the ice storm last month, some of whom still don't have power a month later. So I've got big things that I still want to try to get done with the feds, but we're going to fight to protect Michiganders, fight to protect fundamental rights and the rule of law, too.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2190 - The Biggest Danger To The Trump Administration
Well, I hadn't planned to speak, but on behalf of all the military men and women who serve our country and serve so honorably on behalf of the state of Michigan, I am really damn happy we're here to celebrate this recapitalization at Selfridge. It's crucial for the Michigan economy. It's crucial for the men and women here, for our homeland security and our future. So thank you.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2190 - The Biggest Danger To The Trump Administration
I am so, so grateful that this announcement was made today, and I appreciate all the work. Thank you.
The Bulwark Podcast
Tommy Vietor: Deniability Is All That Matters
I think this is the story of Michigan, right? We're a very diverse state. We are a state that tends to go back and forth and like some balance in our politics. And I've won twice with big margins within two years of Donald Trump also carrying Michigan. And so, as I said in my recent address, I'm not out looking for fights. I'm always looking to collaborate first.
The Bulwark Podcast
Tommy Vietor: Deniability Is All That Matters
I won't back down from an important one, that's for sure. But I got a job to do and we're going to stay focused on moving forward and trying to find common ground where we can.
The Bulwark Podcast
Tommy Vietor: Deniability Is All That Matters
I think it's to keep listening to the people, and it's part of what I talk about in my book that we've just made for young adults. These are lessons that you can use at any age, right? Learning how to listen is a superpower that not enough people tap into.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
You're just basically a polyurethane core.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
So I'm named after both my grandmothers, Gretchen and Esther. And Grandma Gretchen always said, never let anyone call you Gretch. Your name is Gretchen. Gretch sounds like wretch. It's not pretty. So I've always had this aversion to being called Gretch. And I don't know many women that want big in front of their nickname.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
So Big Gretch, when it first came to be during the pandemic, I was not sure what to make of it. And a woman who worked with me, Shaquilla Myers, who's from Detroit, said, you don't understand. This is a compliment. This is like the people of Detroit just gave you the key to the city. They love you. This is a nice thing. So now it's my favorite nickname, Big Gretch.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
So he made it into a song. It started in the city of Detroit, but he made Big Gretch into a song, and that's really what blew it up.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
Yes.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
Well, I'm a very accident-prone person. I'm a klutz. I run into things. I fall down. I mean, I was practicing in my state of the state last year, and I ran into one of the podiums. I had a huge bruise. It just happens all the time, but when I was in middle school, I went to church camp, and for some reason, it was out in Virginia or West Virginia of all places, and I was running to a base, and the
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
Other girl tagged me but pushed me really hard. And I went right into the cement and knocked out my front teeth. And so I came back from church camp in a wheelchair because I got 30 stitches in my knee. Both my hands were cut up. My face was cut up. And I was missing my teeth. And my father just looked at me and said, Gravity Gretchen.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
It's a good question. I felt most bad about my dad because he just paid for braces to fix the gap between those front teeth. But now I think I've got to figure out how I anger God.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
Well, I'll just say this. No dogs were shot in my book. That's true. Yeah, so when I was in high school, I ran with a fast crowd. It was the 80s. There was not a whole lot of parental oversight and a lot of access to alcohol. I drank a lot before a football game, and I... passed out between two cars, and my principal found me.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
And I tell this story because that was really when I kind of got it together. And became the best, you know, the most improved student that year. And went to Michigan State and, you know, ended up... Thank you, go Green. Ended up, you know, on the dean's list. And then I went to law school and graduated magna cum laude. But I think it was...
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
I think it was that moment that really, it was devastating and I was punished. But it really inspired me to get my act together. Right.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
Yeah.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
Yeah.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
I mean, we'll see. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to, you know, see how it goes.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
The Michigan's Etsy community is ready to roll. Thank you.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
Oh, we are?
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
Samson the hot tub and bear. You're right.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut
I just had a feeling.