Gretchen Whitmer is once again trying to smooth things over with President Donald Trump.
The Michigan governor, who has drawn criticism from fellow Democrats for frequently meeting with the president, told reporters on Tuesday that she’d spoken to Trump about his May 28 comment that he’d “take a look at” pardoning the men convicted of plotting to kidnap her in 2020.
“I will just confirm that I have connected with the president directly on this subject and made my thoughts known,” Whitmer told reporters, according to NBC.
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In October 2020, 13 men were arrested by the FBI for orchestrating a scheme to abduct Whitmer as part of a larger plan to overthrow Michigan’s state government.
Four of the men are now serving prison time on federal charges, making them eligible for presidential pardons. Of the remaining nine participants, seven were tried on state charges, and two more were acquitted of their federal charges.
After revealing that she’d spoken to the president this week, Whitmer added, “I’m not going to share more about our conversation, but hopefully he’ll take some of those things into consideration when he makes a decision.”
Shortly after the 13 suspects were first arrested, Whitmer said Trump was “complicit” in their scheme, citing his 2020 comments telling the Proud Boys extremist group to “stand back and stand by.”
“Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry,” Whitmer told NBC at the time. “When our leaders meet with, encourage, or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions and they are complicit.”
However, Whitmer’s relationship with the president has taken on a vastly different energy in his second term. The Michigan governor has met with Trump at the White House several times since his inauguration in January, receiving backlash from supporters and fellow politicians alike when photos emerged of her appearing to hide her face from cameras while in the Oval Office in April.
Later that month, Trump publicly praised Whitmer while speaking at Selfridge Air National Guard Force Base in Michigan, even pulling her on stage for a photo op.
Despite criticisms from her fellow Democrats, Whitmer defended meeting with Trump as “service above self,” and received her highest approval rating yet—63 percent—after her photo ops with the president.
Trump, meanwhile, first entertained pardoning Whitmer’s would-be kidnappers last week, when he told reporters that he would “take a look” at possible pardons.
“I will take a look at it. It’s been brought to my attention,” said the president. “I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job.”
The day after Trump first floated the idea of pardoning the men, Whitmer told reporters in Michigan that she was “very disappointed” to hear his comments.
“I’ll be making my thoughts known to the White House,” Whitmer said at the time, “I hope they take it into consideration.”
When asked about Trump’s conversation with Whitmer at a press conference earlier today, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she could confirm the pair had spoken, but would not elaborate on the details of their conversation.
Instead, Leavitt added, “I will reiterate what [Trump] said publicly when he was asked… about the pardons. He said it’s something he would look at, nothing more, nothing less.”
