Andrew Roth, Michigan Advance

The speaker told the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday that Michigan is better poised to work with Trump than other states with Democratic governors as a result of Whitmer’s approach to his second term.

“The governor got a lot of criticism for the way she handled some things, but I think we should applaud the fact that she was there and she was engaging and helping us build a bridge with President Trump,” Hall said.

Whitmer was photographed during the meeting holding up folders to cover her face.

The Eric Lee/ @nytimes.com photo of Gretchen Whitmer reminds me of the old @mattgertz.bsky.social saying: If you try to work with Trump, he will humiliate you. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/12/u…
[image or embed]
— Eric Michael Garcia (@ericmgarcia.bsky.social) April 12, 2025 at 7:50 PM

But Hall said her overall approach to working with Trump is “one of the smartest things” she has done.

“Whitmer is embracing Trump, she’s complimenting Trump, she’s investing time in building a bridge with Trump,” Hall said. “And I think as a result of that, our state is going to benefit, because we’re going to be in a position we were not in in the first Trump administration, where Whitmer can be an asset to help us get things done with President Trump.”

Whitmer has defended her Oval Office visit, saying she “stayed in the room because I needed to make the case for Michigan, and that’s my job.”

Whitmer wasn’t the only Democrat praised by Hall; he also said he has good working relationships with Lansing Mayor Andy Schor and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who is currently running for governor as an independent.

But when he was asked about his approach to working in a bipartisan manner with those leaders, Hall went on a three minute tangent attacking Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids), state Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) and Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel.

“All Sarah Anthony does is try to wake up and say ‘what can I do for Lansing?’” Hall said. “And I know you guys all like her because of that, but me, I’m the opposite. The problem is, when you get outside of here, there’s not a lot of common sense in Lansing.”

Hall said that Senate Democrats have a “negative governing philosophy.”

“We decided that we were going to actually try to have a positive vision,” Hall said. “Rather than just complain about the other side, like Winnie Brinks and Sarah Anthony and the Democrats in the Senate, we said what if we compared that with actually doing positive governing.”

Hall said one priority he shares with Schor is getting state employees back into the office in Lansing.

He committed to using the budget to get state employees back to Lansing.

“We’re going to do some things to get that going,” Hall said. “I think we’re going to push pretty hard on that to get the state workers back to work in person.”

Hall pointed to California Gov. Gavin Newsom as an example of states requiring government employees to return to working in-person five years after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grassroots organizers delivered more than 2,000 petition signatures to the Lansing office of U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI) demanding that the first-term congressman hold an in-person town hall meeting.

Barrett held a telephone town hall earlier in the month, following guidance from the House GOP’s campaign arm to avoid backlash at in-person meetings.

But the information to call in for that meeting didn’t reach everyone who registered for the event, and some Democrats have expressed concern that the only participants allowed to ask questions during virtual events would be Republican supporters.

Curtis Hamilton, one of the organizers who delivered the petitions Friday, said that the protesters “feel that he is not listening and that he is going through filters, and we just want to talk to him unfiltered.”

Petitions were also delivered to the office of U.S. Rep. John James (R-MI) earlier in the week.

Barrett spokesperson Michael Gordon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about who is allowed to visit the freshman representative’s district office. However, Barrett himself took to social media Saturday to say he and his staff have “responded to more than 20,000 phone calls, letters, and emails while meeting with dozens of people from mid-Michigan every single week.” He noted the telephone town hall he recently hosted and said he looked forward to hosting another event again in April, although he ended with a caveat.

“While we have seen organized agitators try to disrupt and plunge public events across the country into chaos, I’m focused on getting results and will continue looking for meaningful ways to engage everyone in our community — even those who disagree with me,’ said Barrett.

Hamilton said Kendall assured the organizers who made an appointment to visit the office that their message would be delivered, even if he could not commit to Barrett’s attendance at an April 22 town hall sponsored by the NAACP.

“We said we’ll have a chair on stage for him whether he shows up or not,” Hamilton said over chants of “we can’t bear it” and “one term Tom” from the crowd gathered outside the office.

This story was updated to add comment from Rep. Barrett.

Vice President Kamala Harris questioned whether former President Donald Trump is “fit” to serve as president after the Republican nominee canceled several planned interviews and spent more than 30 minutes at the end of a town hall in Pennsylvania standing on stage swaying to music rather than taking questions.

Trump has recently backed out of interviews with NBC News and with 60 Minutes. His staff had been in talks with The Shade Room, an online outlet with a primarily young and Black audience, but were reportedly told that Trump would not be finalizing a date for the interview because he is “exhausted.”

During a rally in Grand Rapids on Friday, Harris, 59, hammered off Trump, 78, for canceling interviews and questioned whether he would be able to serve another four years as president.

“If you are exhausted on the campaign trail, it raises real questions about whether you are fit for the toughest job in the world,” Harris said.

The crowd in Grand Rapids loudly cheered when U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) asked if anyone had watched Harris’ interview with Fox News. Harris spoke to a group of reporters before the rally and filmed a one-on-one interview after stepping off stage in Grand Rapids.

But Harris and other speakers warned of a Trump “with no guardrails” if he is successful in seeking a second term, citing a comment Trump made during an appearance on Fox News in which he referred to Democrats as “the enemy within.”

“I always say, we have two enemies,” Trump said. “We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries.”

Stabenow said that “Donald Trump gets weirder and weirder, but you know what? He also gets scarier and scarier.”

“To be clear, we know who the real enemy from within is in America today, and it’s Donald Trump,” Stabenow said.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has been on her “ Driving Forward Blue Wall Bus Tour” through Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, took aim at a recent report that Trump, during his first term, had secretly sent a COVID-19 test machine to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the early days of the pandemic.

“During COVID, he told states like us, when we were desperate for medical supplies, that we had to go find them ourselves. He said to us governors, ‘I am not the nation’s shipping clerk,’ when we were begging for supplies to save lives,” Whitmer said. “But at the same time, he was sending supplies to his pal Vladimir Putin. He betrayed us. He betrayed his oath of office.”

Whitmer appeared on stage with Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, who is being challenged by GOP attorney Paul Hudson for the 3rd Congressional District seat, also spoke at the event.

Harris said the stakes are higher in November than they were in either the 2016 or 2020 elections, in which Trump also ran, citing a J uly U.S. Supreme Court decision that she said “basically told the former president he is effectively immune no matter what he does in the White House” before encouraging the audience to “imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.”

“We are clear: Someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again have the privilege of standing behind the seal of the president,” Harris said, raising her voice.

This week has been one of the busiest in Michigan during the entire presidential campaign.

Harris held events later Friday in Lansing and Oakland County. She is scheduled to be in Detroit on Saturday. Trump rallied supporters in Detroit on Friday night.

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said that former President Donald Trump needs to “stop sh---talking America” during a visit to Flint on Thursday.

Shapiro made the comment during a stop on the “Driving Forward Blue Wall Bus Tour” that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer organized and also features Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.

Former President Donald Trump said during a recent visit to Detroit that “our whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected in November — a comment the Harris campaign quickly turned into an ad.

During an appearance in Chicago on Tuesday, Trump doubled down, saying the city is an example of the United States being a “third-world nation.”

“We’re a developing nation, too. Take a look at Detroit, take a look at our cities,” Trump said during an appearance before the Economic Club of Chicago.

The three Midwest governors are touring their respective states together with an understanding that each swing state will be key to Harris’ path to victory in November.

But Shapiro said they are also united by Trump attacking cities in each of their states, pointing to the comments about Detroit, as well as remarks Trump made leading up to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee before adding, “I’m sick and tired of him attacking Philadelphia.”

“A guy who wants to lead the greatest nation on Earth keeps attacking his fellow Americans,” Shapiro said. “Donald Trump better stop s----talking America, stop talking down to Americans and start lifting people up.

Whitmer’s federal political action committee announced a six-figure radio advertising purchase Thursday focused on Trump’s comments.

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison joined the Midwest governors at the Flint Farmers’ Market for their first stop of the day.

“The other party likes to say, ‘Make America great again.’ In essence, what they’re saying is that America’s greatness is in her past,” Harrison said. “But we in the Democratic Party understand that America’s greatness isn’t in her past; it’s in her future.”

The bus tour kicked off in Wisconsin earlier this week and will continue on to Pennsylvania after spending three days in Michigan. Stops in Muskegon, Grand Rapids and Jackson are scheduled for Friday.

Shapiro and Evers credited Whitmer with the idea to embark on the tour, with it being planned and executed through her Fight Like Hell PAC.

Whitmer said that by planning the tour themselves, the governors can “be more nimble” in deciding which areas of each state to visit than if the events were organized through the Harris campaign apparatus.

“One of the things that we wanted to do was to be able to get into communities in a way that the official Harris-Walz campaign can’t,” Whitmer said.

After the Flint stop on Thursday, the governors also visited Saginaw, Midland and East Lansing.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey joined Whitmer, Shapiro and Evers for the East Lansing rally, representing one tenth of the nation’s governors in the Michigan State University Union’s ballroom.

“This is not a common thing, to have four other governors come to your state to help rally people,” Whitmer said.

The rally – which was significantly less attended than the final rally of Whitmer’s own reelection campaign, when she filled the field behind the Rock on Farm Lane – was briefly interrupted by a person shouting that his friends had been arrested for protesting the war in Gaza at the University of Michigan. Whitmer said as he was being removed that she would follow up.

Moore said that residents of blue states are counting on the residents of swing states like Michigan to determine the outcome of the election.

“We need you to be our representatives,” Moore said.

Whitmer pointed out that each stop Thursday was taking place in an area with a key U.S. House race — and that they weren’t limited exclusively to heavily blue areas. They were joined at different stops by state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City), who’s facing GOP nominee Paul Junge for the open 8th District seat, and former state Sen. Curtis Hertel (D-East Lansing), who’s up against former state Sen. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) in the open 7th District seat.

“I also want to do a little bit of outreach to people who are maybe, you know, [former Michigan Gov. Rick] Snyder Republicans or [former Michigan Gov. Bill] Milliken Republicans – or even [former President Ronald] Reagan Republicans,” Whitmer said. “If you don’t see a Trump presidency as something that represents your values, there’s a seat for you at the table.”

Healey warned that many moderate Republicans, who at times served as a check on Trump during his first term, would no longer be in government during a potential second term.

“He was able to appoint judges to courts, so we don’t have that protection this go-around,” Healey said. “Even in a state like Massachusetts, I tell folks that I can only do so much as governor. Everything is on the line here, because the way he speaks, the way he wants to weaponize, the way he wants to retaliate, the way he wants to withhold funding — say nothing of the misinformation and the chaos he’s going to foment — we’re all at risk here.”

State Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet’s husband, Joseph Rivet, may serve as a Bay City commissioner by day, but could a late career pivot to performing stunts be in the works?

In a recently released ad for McDonald Rivet’s campaign to succeed U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint) in Congress, Joseph Rivet is presented as jumping out of a moving vehicle, apparently frustrated with hearing his wife talk about cutting taxes.

“We felt it was really important to tell my record on the largest tax cut for working families in Michigan’s history, and I do talk about it incessantly,” said McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City).

Democrats in the Michigan Legislature, holding a trifecta in Lansing for the first time in 40 years, passed a bill in early 2023 that was introduced by McDonald Rivet to boost the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) from 6% to 30% of the federal credit.

She’s facing Paul Junge, a former immigration official under former President Donald Trump. As for his economic policy, Junge told the Michigan Advance that the U.S. needs to lower the tax burden for working families and seniors and take action on lowering inflation. He said Trump’s campaign proposals of no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security and extending the Trump tax cuts are a “a great start.”

The Rivets wanted to “change the tone” in the race against Junge, said Rivet, who’s a former member of the state House. Junge is making a third bid for the U.S. House after previously losing to U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) in 2020 and Kildee in 2022.

“There’s so much negative. I spend so much time explaining to people that records are distorted in the negative stuff,” Rivet said. “But the reaction to this has just been refreshing, for us too. People have just been very responsive, and they appreciate that it’s taking a completely different tact to how we talk about Kristen’s priorities.”

After the commercial began airing, Rivet said he went shopping and, upon arriving at the register, the cashier told him, “Well, I’m glad to see you’re OK.”

“That’s the kind of response we’ve been getting, with a big smile on her face,” Rivet said. “It took me, like, five seconds to realize. You know, I’m like, what? And then I realized, oh, she saw the commercial.”

McDonald Rivet said that after she spoke at a recent event, people were more interested in taking selfies with her husband than with her.

“That sort of upbeat response, and just making people smile and giving them an opportunity to say some lighthearted things, has just been sort of fun,” Rivet said.

While Rivet said he felt a sense that he could do his own stunts, he added that “the smarter folks at the production company suggested that a professional union stuntman would be a far better thing to do. So I relented to their expertise.”

Rivet said he did not see this year’s remake of “The Fall Guy” – noting that he watched the original series starring Lee Majors – he said he was impressed with the professionalism of the stunt team.

“They knew my height, weight … they tried to make sure the stunt man really did sort of resemble my build and all those kinds of things,” Rivet said. “And they were serious. He practiced. They have a whole stunt safety team who goes through everything to make sure that everything’s done safely. It was impressive to watch.”

But don’t rule out a second career just yet, he said.

“I still – if somebody’s a little more flexible with the chance of a nearly 60-year-old guy hurting himself, breaking something, then I might be willing to do it,” Rivet said. “I understand [Tom] Cruise does his own stunts, so, you know, who knows? I thought I was up for it, but they decided to err on the side of caution.”

While McDonald Rivet said there was a debate on staff about whether the ad was “too over the top,” she said she knew when she first read the script that the ad would be a hit.

“I read the script for the first time and literally laughed out loud,” McDonald Rivet said. “I had to put the paper down, I was laughing so hard.”

“It’s good fun and great substance,” McDonald Rivet said. “Politics doesn’t have to be awful. Every ad doesn’t need to be rooted in hate and fear. We can just talk about what we’ve done, and I think if you can get people to laugh and understand that you’re a human being … that’s good politics, too.”

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said while campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris in Saginaw on Saturday that there is a “war” being waged on working families in the United States.

“There are terrible wars going on right now. Heartbreaking wars in Gaza and Ukraine. But there is another war that we don’t talk about. And that is a war that has gone on for the last half century against the working families of our country,” Sanders said. “It’s been a brutal war, and we know who the winners have been. The winners have been the billionaire class, never had it so good, and the losers have been the working families of this country.”

The Saginaw event was the second of four appearances by Sanders throughout Michigan over the weekend.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain joined Sanders at an earlier stop in Warren but did not attend the Saginaw visit. Sanders and Fain also are scheduled to hold events in Grand Rapids and East Lansing and on Sunday.

Sanders praised the UAW for its contract negotiations in 2023, thanking them for helping to elevate the idea of a 32-hour work week in the national conversation.

Sanders said the idea will become more important as worker productivity increases as a result of automation.

“You’re not going to have that tomorrow,” Sanders said. “The point is we need to have a discussion about who benefits from the technology. We can be looking at a golden age where machinery replaces a lot of human toil, a lot of dangerous work, a lot of repetitious work. That is a good thing if ordinary people benefit from that transition.”

Sanders said that he and Harris are on the same page in their support of legislation that would prohibit employers from replacing striking workers, ban the use of lockouts and remove prohibitions on secondary activity.

“Kamala also knows that if we’re going to create a strong middle class in this country, we need to grow the trade union movement,” Sanders said.

Sanders noted that the United States has a lower life expectancy than many other wealthy nations, which he said is in part a result of the stress of living paycheck to paycheck.

“I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck, and one of the impacts of living paycheck to paycheck, not knowing how you’re going to get through the week, how you’re going to pay your bills, is the kind of incredible stress that working class people today are experiencing now,” Sanders said.

“Stress kills. Stress destroys our bodies and our minds, and that’s what millions of working class people are going through right now,” he added.

Sanders praised Harris’ plans to increase affordable housing stock, provide families with tax credits and limit the cost of childcare.

Another issue introducing stress for many working-class families, Sanders said, is that of reproductive health care.]

“Women have struggled against second class citizenship since the very inception of the United States,” Sanders said. “Women and their male allies fought and fought and said, ‘You know what? We ain’t going to be second class citizens. We have a right to full rights.’”

While Sanders said he will continue fighting for Medicare for All – the signature issue from his own 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns – he said that “there’s an immediate thing that we can and should be thinking about” in the meantime.

“Millions of seniors in this country cannot afford to go to a dentist, can’t afford glasses, can’t afford hearing aids,” Sanders said. “We need to expand Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing.”

Sanders acknowledged that Social Security likely needs changes in its funding, but said that while Republicans want to cut costs by raising the retirement age, he and President Joe Biden have proposed increasing revenue by lifting the cap on how much an individual pays into Social Security once their income exceeds a certain threshold.

“What we say to our Republican friends in the House is that we’re not going to cut Social Security, we’re going to expand Social Security,” Sanders said.

Sanders did not take questions from the audience during the event, which was billed as a town hall, instead encouraging audience members on occasion to shout out answers to his questions.

Former President Donald Trump held a rally on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University on Thursday, two days before Sanders visited.

“My understanding is that Trump was here a couple days ago, and I’m sure he gave you a speech which will probably be even longer than mine,” Sanders said. “But I suspect he forgot to tell you a few things. No. 1, I doubt very much that he told you that he is a pathological liar.”

A sign in the audience read “Trump couldn’t fill our gym,” a reference to the amount of space at the back of the Ryder Center that was left empty for Trump’s rally.

Sanders said the question of whether Trump should be president again is one of the few areas where he and former Vice President Mike Pence, who served under Trump during his first term, can find common ground.

“For the first time in American history, as I understand it, a person who was a candidate’s vice president for four years, Mike Pence, is not supporting Donald Trump. When you are a vice president, you get to know the guy you work with every day,” Sanders said. “Mike Pence is a conservative guy, his views are nothing like mine. I disagree with him on every issue, but he worked with Trump every single day, and he said Trump is not fit to be president.”

Pence has said that he and Trump will likely never “see eye to eye” on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the election, many of whom chanted “hang Mike Pence.” The former vice president, as president of the Senate, ultimately certified the election results confirming Biden’s victory over Trump.

“I’ve run many times, I’ve lost. Many public officials lose elections, and you man up and you say, ‘You know what? Congratulations. I lost.’ You don’t go around whining, you don’t go around undermining American democracy. You play by the rules,” Sanders said. “There are great athletes out there who break their hearts, trying to win a game and they lose. Sometimes you lose. That’s what life’s about – politics, football, whatever it may be. And you don’t find these great athletes who lose the game, ‘Oh, we only lost it because of the referees, they cheated.’ They accept defeat and they try to do better the next time.”

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.

Actress and climate activist Jane Fonda said in Ann Arbor on Monday that the fight against climate change would become “impossible” if former President Donald Trump wins his bid to return to the White House in November.

Fonda said that the effects of climate change are not abstract or in the distant future – they’re being felt now.

“It’s not just the climate. It’s our health. They’re killing us, and we’re paying them to do it,” Fonda said. “And it’s going to get worse. It’s going to get impossible. We lose if he gets elected.”

Fonda pointed to PFAs in Benton Harbor as an example, adding that she heard climate change is also affecting cherries in Michigan, eliciting supportive shouts from audience members.

“It’s not just four years. We can’t lose four years. We have to cut our emissions in half by 2030,” Fonda said. “We’re going in the wrong direction, and we’re going to be galloping in the wrong direction if Trump gets elected. We cannot allow that to happen.”

Fonda, who is slated to speak at a Climate Voters for Harris event hosted by the University of Michigan College Democrats Tuesday, said that she frequently hears from college students who say they aren’t planning to vote or are considering third party candidates.

“I say to my young people, nobody’s perfect. No candidate is perfect. No husband or wife is perfect,” Fonda said. “You’re not marrying her – although I can think of worse people to marry. You’re making a pragmatic choice. If [Minnesota Gov. Tim] Walz and [Vice President Kamala] Harris win, you have a voice. If the orange man wins, no voice.”

Fonda said that voters wanting to shift Harris’ position on issues have to first get her elected if they want to have that power to exert.

“She cares about people. She’s not going to be a corporate president. We have to get her elected, and then we have to organize like hell,” Fonda said. “It ain’t over when we win the election. So we don’t criticize now, we don’t say, ‘Oh, but I wish you – ‘ no, uh-uh. You get her elected and then organize.”

Fonda shared that the first time she canvassed, it was for her then-husband, Tom Hayden, who grew up in Royal Oak and was an author of the Port Huron Statement before eventually running for office in California.

“A couple of minutes on the porch, what can you learn? I learned so much talking to people, finding out what they thought, what they cared about,” Fonda said. “I think, especially in the middle part of the country, people want to be heard, they want to talk about what they need and what they feel.”

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) said that the Ann Arbor campaign office is responsible for 25% of Democrats’ voter contact in the state.

“Not that I’m competitive, but we are doing more doors than anybody in the state, more voter contact than anybody in the state, thanks to all of you,” Dingell said.

Dingell said that the momentum she sees in Ann Arbor is making her more optimistic than she was in 2016, when she expressed concerns about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign in Michigan.

“I’m trying desperately to be ‘Debbie Determined’ and not ‘Debbie Downer.’ I’m not going to not tell the truth. I’ve never bullshitted you, and I’m never going to start now,” Dingell said. “You know, in 2016, nobody believed me. I’m going to tell you, there is a different feel right now. If I just came in here, I’d never be worried, to tell you the truth.”

But Dingell said that even with the momentum, she expects tough fights for state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) and former state Sen. Curtis Hertel in their campaigns to succeed U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint) and U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), respectively holding the seats for Democrats. Republicans currently have a narrow majority in the U.S. House.

Fonda was scheduled to speak at a fundraiser for state legislative candidates Monday night. She called for a “no holds barred” approach in the election.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance is slated to do an event Tuesday in Sparta in West Michigan. Trump is scheduled to visit Flint Tuesday night for a campaign event, highlighting the importance of the 8th Congressional District where Paul Junge is making a third run for Congress, this time against McDonald Rivet.

“We’re not going to let him gain an ounce over there,” Dingell said. “He plays to people’s fear. He plays for people’s anxieties. He divides us with hate and fear.”

The Flint event, billed as a town hall moderated by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, will be the former president’s first campaign event since a possible second assassination attempt was thwarted over the weekend.

“I am sorry there was a second assassination attempt yesterday. This violence has to stop, period. But we also need to understand who and what he is and how much he is contributing to it,” Dingell said. “I mean, he has not said he’ll accept election results, he will not condemn some of the violence we’ve been seeing. And J.D. Vance defended his lying yesterday that has caused violence in Ohio. Not OK. That’s what we have to remind people of. That’s who these people are.”

But Dingell warned against feeling a sense of schadenfreude after an audience member shouted out to ask when Trump will be required to “pay his fair share of the security of his own golf courses.”

“I know there were a lot of people who had some secret wishes. You shouldn’t say that,” Dingell said. “We will not stand up for that, either side. But right now, we just want to make sure he is safe. Because I want you all to know that I worry, if something happens to him, we’ll have civil war.”

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday that former President Donald Trump suggested using nets to stop Asian carp from getting into the Great Lakes.

Pritzker told the Michigan Democratic Party delegation to the Democratic National Convention on Thursday that Trump made the suggestion during a meeting at the White House with governors shortly after becoming president.

Trump had asked the governors to go around the room and list their most important issues, Pritzker said, to which Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer answered: Asian carp.

“Donald Trump looked at her and said, ‘What’s that?’ After she explained what it is, he said, ‘Well, why don’t we just put a bunch of nets up? That seems like that would keep the fish out,’” Pritzker said.

Pritzker touted a $1.1 billion compact between Illinois and Michigan to build a barrier meant to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

Pritzker said that he debated attending the meeting with Trump, but decided that he had to as he represents Illinois residents.

Pritzker was one of several high-profile speakers who visited the Michigan delegation during their daily breakfasts at the Hilton Chicago. Previous guests also included U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi ( D-Calif.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said that it is important for leaders to stay focused on fundamental issues in order to win the election.

“While we think about this election, while we think about the polls, most people wake up thinking about their job, whether they make enough to support their family,” Beshear said. “They think about their next doctor’s appointment for themselves, their kids and their parents. They think about the school they’re going to drop their kids off at.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a Michigan resident and former mayor of South Bend, Ind., said that focusing on policies is also good strategy because Democrats’ agenda is more popular.

“Especially for those of us who live in more conservative or rural or swing areas, sometimes we Democrats fool ourselves into thinking that we don’t have the most popular positions,” Buttigieg said. “The reverse is true. Most Americans already agree with us that it is the wealthy who are not paying their fair share and the middle class who needs a break, not the other way around.”

Buttigieg criticized Trump’s speech in Howell earlier in the week.

“I saw Donald Trump go to Michigan, of all places, and give a speech about crime, as if we’re going to forget the fact that he’s a convicted criminal running against a prosecutor,” Buttigieg said.

He was asked during a later appearance at the CNN-Politico Grill whether he would consider a run for Michigan governor in 2026, when Whitmer will be term limited out. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson have already expressed interest. Other potential candidates could include Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist former U.S. Senate candidate Hill Harper.

Buttigieg gave no indication that a gubernatorial campaign is on his radar, but stopped short of ruling it out.

“I’m not just trying to be coy for political reasons,” Buttigieg said. “Every great opportunity I’ve had, and everything I’ve done in politics that mattered, probably would have been a big surprise to me just a year or two before it was happening. That’s taught me to be very humble about thinking I have the path figured out in terms of what’s ahead, and I sincerely don’t know what I’ll be doing whenever I’m not doing what I’m doing right now.”

Two police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol from an attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, said in Flint on Friday that Michigan is the “epicenter of preserving democracy.”

Harry Dunn, who served in the U.S. Capitol Police, made the comment during a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris that also included Daniel Hodges, an officer with the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, and U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint).

The riot of former President Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6 left five dead and 140 police officers injured, as well as almost $3 million in damages to the U.S. Capitol.

Trump falsely claimed during a press conference Thursday that his speech on Jan. 6 drew a bigger audience than Martin Luther King Jr. had when he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

“I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody has spoken to crowds bigger than me,” Trump said. “If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not, we had more.”

The congressional Jan. 6 committee estimated that Trump’s speech drew 53,000 people, about one-fifth of the 250,000 who are estimated to have attended King’s address.

Kildee called the claim “a patent lie,” adding that “this guy’s obsession with crowd size is some kind of psychosis that he has.”

“But that’s not the real distinction that should be made,” Kildee added.

“Martin Luther King called this country to a higher purpose,” Kildee said. “He called upon us to have our voices heard, but in a non-violent manner. Peaceful protest. That’s powerful.

“To contrast that with what Donald Trump did, forget the crowd size, what was the motivation, what was the intent? Dr. King’s intent was to spread love and to bring us together to overcome our problems. Donald Trump’s intent was to foment violence, to support his ego and to gain power,” Kildee continued. “Forget the crowd size. There’s a moral difference that is bigger than any other distinction that could be drawn with that particular comparison.”

Dunn retired from the police force in December to run for Congress in Maryland, ultimately finishing second in his primary. But he said he never expected to be anything other than an officer.

“I thought that I was going to be a police officer for the rest of my working life, and I’m not, and I blame Donald Trump for that. If Jan. 6 didn’t happen, nobody knows who I am,” Dunn said.

Hodges, who is still a police officer in Washington, D.C., noted that people may recognize him from footage from Jan. 6 that shows him being beaten by rioters, some of whom tried to gouge his eye out, while being pushed against a wall.

U.S. Capitol police officers point their guns at a door that was vandalized in the House Chamber during a joint session of Congress on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Congress held a joint session today to ratify President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. A group of Republican senators said they would reject the Electoral College votes of several states unless Congress appointed a commission to audit the election results. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

“If you’re a police officer, you don’t do it for attention. If you make the news as a police officer, it’s a bad day,” Dunn said. “I hate that people know who I am. I hate that.”

But Hodges said he feels it is his duty to speak out because, three years later, some Republican officials and candidates continue “peddling these lies, this disinformation, and whitewashing the events of that day to try and make it seem like there was no insurrection, or that it was a trap set by the government or that it was Antifa that did it.”

“I’m here because I’m a living primary source for a very historical event, and I have a moral obligation to see that people understand the truth,” Hodges said. “As long as people are out there spreading these lies, I’m going to come out and say, ‘No, that’s not true. That’s not what happened.’”

Kildee said that while Dunn has retired from the police force and Hodges was speaking in his personal capacity, both officers are honoring the oath they took by sharing their stories.

“Both of these gentlemen have been willing to not just stand as heroes on Jan. 6, but also do what’s necessary to make sure Jan. 6 never happens again,” Kildee said. “They’re still doing the job, in a different way, that they swore an oath to do – that is to protect and to serve.”

Kildee was in the gallery of the House chamber on Jan. 6 preparing to defend Michigan’s electoral votes from any challenges by Republican members of Michigan’s delegation when rioters entered the building, trapping him and others who couldn’t jump down to the floor of the chamber to evacuate with others and had access to the upper floors cut off by the mob.

Kildee, who is retiring after his current term, credited Dunn and Hodges with saving his life.

“You guys took the hit, and you held the line as long as you could until we were able to get out,” Kildee said. “This has been traumatic for a lot of us.”

Asked whether Trump and his rhetoric might undergo unexpected changes, as the officers experienced, in response to his own trauma of having a bullet graze his ear in an apparent assassination attempt, Dunn said he wasn’t convinced.

“He said he was going to change. We saw how long that lasted: 47 minutes, maybe,” Dunn said. “Add that to the list of broken promises or misdeeds. If he says it, I probably don’t believe it.”

“Donald Trump, as a candidate for president, has made it crystal clear that he stands with the Jan. 6 insurgents, to the extent that he would pardon them, to the extent that they have a Jan. 6 choir that they used to celebrate an insurgency against the United States of America as if that is some sort of moment to be proud of.”

“That’s weird,” one attendee interjected, echoing a line from Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“That is weird,” Kildee agreed. “These are some weird people.”

Dunn pointed out that, if Trump were to follow through on pardoning Jan. 6 rioters, it would be “a felon pardoning felons.”

“The felon is the one issuing the pardons. It would be laughable if it wasn’t a possibility,” Dunn said.

He added that felons are not allowed to own firearms, but, if elected for a second term, Trump would have access to nuclear codes.

Hodges said Trump could have pardoned the rioters while he was still president but wanted to assess the fallout of the insurrection attempt.

“Donald Trump’s guiding star is whatever benefits him at that point,” Hodges said. He could have pardoned everyone on Jan. 7, but he didn’t, I think because he wanted to see how the rest of the world was going to react to his attempt, and our institutions failed us. There are good people in positions of power trying to hold him accountable, there are also people with questionable morals in positions of power who prevented that from happening.”

Kildee said moderate Republicans who either did not speak out against Trump or stopped him from facing consequences – such as in the case of then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) not holding hearings after the House voted to impeach Trump a second time – “more insidious than the overtly nutty ones.”

“Refusing to take action is in and of itself a choice,” Hodges said. “When these people refuse to speak up in defense of the truth, it just demonstrates a breathtaking void of integrity, shocking absence of a backbone. They are just, as if they were screaming it explicitly, saying that they value their job more than the truth.”

Victoria LaCivita, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign in Michigan, noted that the Police Officers Association of Michigan has endorsed the former president’s bid for a second term.

“Dangerously liberal Kamala Harris is as anti-law enforcement as it gets,” LaCivita said of the former San Francisco district attorney California attorney general and U.S. senator.

But Kildee said that in the Nov. 5 general election, “we all now are facing our own version of Jan. 6.”

“This time we see them coming. We have the warning that they’re on their way,” Kildee said.

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.

Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio endorsed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to be vice president Sunday evening, calling a ticket combining Vice President Kamala Harris and the Michigan governor “the winning hand” for Democrats after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign Sunday afternoon.

“The heroic, selfless decision by Joe Biden has given us the chance to nominate two leaders who will wipe the smirk off Donald Trump’s face and allow us to come roaring back,” de Blasio said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The best way to beat Trump? Team up @VP Kamala Harris and @GovWhitmer!
The heroic, selfless decision by @JoeBiden has given us the chance to nominate two leaders who will wipe the smirk off Donald Trump’s face and allow us to come roaring back. A Harris-Whitmer ticket is the…
— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) July 22, 2024

De Blasio ran for president during the 2020 cycle and participated in the presidential debates held in Detroit in 2019.

Biden endorsed Harris to be the Democratic nominee for president shortly after ending his own campaign, and Harris has started the process of taking over his existing campaign apparatus.

Several Michigan officials quickly endorsed Harris on Sunday, including U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) and Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Twp.), U.S. Reps. Hillary Scholten (D-Grand Rapids), Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), Dan Kildee (D-Flint), Shri Thanedar (D-Detroit) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), Attorney General Dana Nessel and former governors Jim Blanchard and Jennifer Granholm.

Granholm also serves as Biden’s energy secretary. Another member of Biden’s cabinet, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who lives in Traverse City, also quickly endorsed Harris.

Buttigieg is among the names who have been floated as a potential replacement for Biden or running mate for Harris, along with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who also endorsed Harris on Sunday, and Whitmer.

Whitmer did not endorse anyone Sunday but said that her “job in this election will remain the same: doing everything I can to elect Democrats and stop Donald Trump, a convicted felon whose agenda of raising families’ costs, banning abortion nationwide and abusing the power of the White House to settle his own scores is completely wrong for Michigan.”

Other officials being floated as potential running mates for Harris include Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.

We need a Harris-Whitmer ticket now!
Think of the excitement and energy that would bring! @KamalaHarris and @GovWhitmer: That’s a team we can win with. https://t.co/Pz2Kc7CqzV
— Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) July 22, 2024

While some have indicated they believe Harris may select a male running mate to “balance” the ticket, de Blasio urged delegates to “think of the excitement and energy” a Harris-Whitmer ticket would bring.

“We need a Harris-Whitmer ticket now!” de Blasio said.

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.