Michigan’s Mean Girls Unite Against Tlaib
Maybe it’s something in Michigan’s water (no offense to Flint), or maybe it’s a consequence of the seasonal depression that kicks in every year, but the women tasked with leading this state consistently act like high school mean girls who can’t quite leave the glory days behind.
Example A, from the Queen of Cringe:
Another even more embarrassing example is the catfight that broke out this month between Attorney General Dana Nessel and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
At issue was a comment Tlaib made criticizing Nessel for charging several anti-Israel protesters at the University of Michigan for trespassing and obstructing a police officer. The protesters were part of an encampment on U-M’s campus this past spring and repeatedly ignored instructions from university officials and local law enforcement to remove themselves from the area, according to Nessel’s office. At one point, protesters even became physically combative.
“We’ve had the right to dissent, the right to protest,” Tlaib said in response. “We’ve done it for climate, the immigrant rights movement, for black lives, and even around issues of injustice among water shutoffs. But it seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.”
Tlaib added: “You would expect that from a Republican, but not a Democrat, and it’s really unfortunate.”
Maybe Nessel was peeved at being compared to a Republican—the horror!—or perhaps she agrees with the vast majority of Tlaib’s peers in Congress, who find her to be a loud-mouthed nuisance with a bad case of bigotry, but Nessel decided to take Tlaib’s comments personally.
“Rashida should not use my religion to imply I cannot perform my job fairly as Attorney General,” Nessel, who is Jewish, said. “It’s antisemitic and wrong.”
Woo! Someone get these girls a drink. Actually, maybe skip Nessell—she can’t handle her liquor.
Tlaib’s defenders have denied that she was referring to Nessel’s religious beliefs when she mentioned a potential bias in her office, but Nessel argued the implication was clear.
“Rashida Tlaib is an individual who is well-known for making inflammatory and incendiary remarks that are antisemitic in nature,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “So this isn’t the first time that we would have heard these words out of her mouth. I think it’s very clear to everyone exactly what she was saying.”
As if on cue, the rest of Michigan’s mean girls entered the fray.
“I’ve known [Nessell] for years before we were both elected to serve the citizens of Michigan. She is an exceptional leader, sincerely committed to ensuring all people are safe and justice is served,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson wrote on X. “Her only concern is doing her job well, with integrity. I am grateful for her leadership every day.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at first tried to remain neutral, telling CNN she didn’t want to “get in the middle of this argument that they’re having.” But every clique leader eventually has to pick a side.
“The suggestion that Attorney General Nessel would make charging decisions based on her religion as opposed to the rule of law is antisemitic,” Whitmer said in a statement a few days later. “Attorney General Nessel has always conducted her work with integrity and followed the rule of law. We must all use our platform and voices to call out hateful rhetoric and racist tropes.”
Sorry, Rashida! Looks like you’re not welcome in the current-and-aspiring-Michigan-governors club.
I have no idea whether Tlaib meant to be antisemitic or whether Nessel has an anti-Palestinian bias. To be frank, I don’t really care. As far as I’m concerned, they’re both poor leaders who have demonstrated consistently bad judgment and should be voted out at the soonest possibility. So if they want to act like the hens in my parents’ chicken coop, squabbling over the highest perch, they can have at it.
But facts still matter. And in this case, Tlaib is just flat out wrong. Nessel was right to bring charges against protesters who very clearly violated state law by taking over an entire section of campus, intimidating their peers, and willfully disregarding orders from law enforcement to stop. In fact, the decision to pursue this case is one of the few good decisions Nessel has made since entering office.
But for now, let them fight. The more energy they spend fighting each other, the less energy Nessel will have to target Christian adoption agencies and conservative websites, and the less likely we’ll have to worry about either of them bringing this drama with them to a higher office.
Kaylee McGhee White is the Restoring America editor for the Washington Examiner, a Tony Blankley fellow for the Steamboat Institute, and a senior fellow for the Independent Women’s Forum. She grew up in Detroit and graduated from Hillsdale College. Follow her on X @KayleeDMcGhee.