It took The New York Times—of all publications—to expose Gretchen Whitmer for what she truly is: a feckless trust-fund sorority girl unequipped to lead.
Baited into the Oval Office by Trump for what she thought was a one-on-one meeting, Whitmer walked into a writhing orgy of reporters. Caught out, her first instinct was to hold some folders over her face. A photographer from The Times snapped the image that should end her political career.
Now, Whitmer needs to be investigated. This week marks the five-year anniversary of her infamous Executive order 2020-50, which required nursing homes to accept Covid-positive people.
To this day, Whitmer insists Michigan’s death toll in its nursing homes is below the national average. She cites science and data. Remember, I had to sue her for that death data. As it turned out, Whitmer was citing political science and data that did not exist.
So Michigan’s auditor general rolled up his sleeves. He found that the true death toll in the state’s long-term care facilities was 42% higher than what Whitmer’s administration was reporting. (The true count may be double that.) The report never got much traction, as Whitmer’s flunkies attacked the findings as bogus and accused the auditor of political hackery. The local press, to its damnable shame, went along with this narrative.
That’s the data part of it. And then there’s the actual science part of it. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed there was a 72% higher mortality rate in nursing homes that commingled the sick and healthy than those that housed the healthy only.
When confronted with facts, Whitmer’s sycophants argue that it is time to move on, that the pandemic was a once-in-a-lifetime emergency, and the governor had to make tough decisions.
But Executive Order 2020-50 was not a tough decision. It was a stupid decision plagiarized from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who cancelled his order 40 days after implementing it. Nevertheless, Cuomo lost his job.
Not Whitmer. Unchallenged by the media, she continued with the deadly practice of commingling for months more. She ordered nursing homes locked down to keep Covid out, but ordered that the infected be let in. In many homes, the only thing separating the sick from the susceptible were plastic shower curtains.
The hubris and stupidity of it. The bogus science and data. The “tough decisions.” It’s criminal. I’ve never seen a prairie fire, but I’m sure I wouldn’t try to douse the flames by throwing hay bales on top of it.
I still keep the death certificate of Clarence Billet, 86, who contracted Covid in a Detroit nursing home for veterans. Clarence was tossed around like a bag of soiled laundry, going from home to hospital and back eight separate times. Imagine his suffering. Clarence eventually died of Covid, but his name and place of residence were never recorded.
It’s also worth remembering that while Clarence was bouncing around in the back of an ambulance, Whitmer was bouncing around on Twitter and TikTok starring in cringy videos in an effort to become a social-media influencer rather than the steady hand of influence we all needed.
And now, with one photograph, the entire country has seen what we here know. Whitmer is an unserious person who lacks the genetics to govern. When the going got tough, she covered her face, covered her ass, and clicked her heels.
But the only people who disappeared were the elderly in Michigan’s nursing homes.
Charlie LeDuff is a reporter educated in public schools. Follow him on X @Charlieleduff.
