Carlos Osorio/Associated Press
- At a campaign rally in Michigan on Saturday, President Donald Trump criticized Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 restrictions, prompting the crowd to chant “lock her up.”
- Trump responded to the crowd’s chant with “lock ‘em all up.”
- The remarks came about a week after the FBI said it foiled a right-wing militia plot to kidnap Whitmer.
- Whitmer responded on Twitter, saying, “This is exactly the rhetoric that has put me, my family, and other government officials’ lives in danger while we try to save the lives of our fellow Americans.”
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At a campaign rally in Michigan on Saturday, President Donald Trump criticized Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s coronavirus restrictions, prompting the crowd to chant “lock her up,” less than two weeks after FBI said it foiled a right-wing militia plot to kidnap her.
Trump responded to the chant with “lock ‘em all up.”
—Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) October 17, 2020
Whitmer took to Twitter to respond.
“This is exactly the rhetoric that has put me, my family, and other government officials’ lives in danger while we try to save the lives of our fellow Americans,” she said. “It needs to stop.”
Authorities announced on October 8 that 13 men were charged in connection to plots to kidnap Whitmer and overthrow the state's government.
Federal prosecutors said the scheme included months of planning, and involved monitoring the governor's vacation home and building bombs.
Whitmer has already criticized the president's response to the kidnapping plot, saying his administration "didn't do anything" when she first raised concerns about her safety.
She has faced blowback from the president and other Republican lawmakers for her response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, armed protesters descended upon the Michigan capitol to oppose the governor's statewide lockdown. At the time, Trump had called on his supporters in a tweet to "LIBERATE MICHIGAN."