Governor Gretchen Whitmer on JD Vance vs Tim Walz Debate, Donald Trump & Americans Finding Unity

Our next guest is the very popular governor of a state that gave us cherries and Magic Johnson. And she is the author of this bestseller, True Gretsch. Please welcome Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Great to be here. I have to be honest with you. You walked out, and I usually will kiss the guys. I'm like, oh, wait, is it weird to kiss the governor? I have not kissed a governor before. There you go. Thank you. Oh, wait, I did kiss Gavin Newsom one time. I mean, that's understandable. How are you? Thank you for coming. Yeah, glad to be here. Did you meet Lady Gaga? Very briefly. You've got like a playlist here of some of your favorite hits, your True Gretsch playlist. And Lady Gaga's on there. She's, you've seen this playlist, I assume, right? I have, yeah. You didn't have an assistant draw this up for you? No, those are some of my favorites. You have some Michigan artists on the list, Eminem. Of course. The White Stripes. Absolutely. G-Mac Cash, who performed on our show once. He wrote a song about you. That's right. And I don't see Kid Rock here. Nope. No Ted Nugent either. I do not see Ted Nugent either, yeah. So I don't see Bob Seger. There's no trouble with him, is there? I love Bob Seger. OK. I saw him at a Detroit Lions game not long ago. Did you talk to him? He's still awesome. Oh, he's the best. Yeah. So OK, well, it's great to have you here. What are you doing in California here? I just came out to see you. Just to see me? There's nothing going on, is there? Did you watch the debate, I assume? I did. Tim Walz is a friend of yours? I love Tim Walz. How do the governors even know each other? Well, Tim and I, and Tony Evers from Wisconsin, and JB Pritzker from Illinois, we all came in together in 2018. And won our elections then, and then worked through the pandemic together. And so we bonded. We are friends for life. That's what brought you together. Well, a lot of people with COVID is something that, so you guys would have talks and figure out how to handle things and how best to serve your constituents. That's right. And it wasn't just Democrats. We included Mike DeWine from Ohio, and Eric Holcomb from Indiana. We were all grappling. We're all trying to build a plane while we're flying it. And the guy in the White House was telling people to drink bleach. And we were trying to figure out, what do we really need to do to keep people safe? I know. I have to say, I was so mad at him when I had my first glass of bleach. Did it make your teeth white? In the book, I was reading your book, and there's a story about your first debate. And it sounds made up. It's so crazy. You're out, like, knocking on doors, right? I was out knocking doors. It was warm. It was August, early August, late July, and really hot. Knocking doors, I'm a little sweaty. I'm wearing a button down, and my campaign manager comes flying up. And I could hear his car from a ways away, because campaign managers notoriously have beater cars. And he's got all this literature in it. And he's like, get in the car! And I'm like, what is happening? I thought there was some weird crisis going on. I jump in the car, and he said, the debate is not tomorrow. It's right now! And so I had to go debate, sweaty, not wearing a suit, which is what I would have liked to have worn. Did you fire him before or after the debate? I kept him on, and he was grateful. He must have been pretty relaxed to not know what day the debate was. Well, he was a young man. And young men are, yes, challengeable. Do you think Tim Walz, how's he, do you think he's feeling positive right now, relieved that it's over? I think he's feeling good. I think he's relieved it's over. Everyone is when you walk out of a debate. I think he did really well. You know, J.D. Vance was a better debater than Donald Trump. Donald Trump should have taken some lessons from him. But I think Walz brought it home. I think he delivered the W. Yeah, because he was saying that he wasn't supposedly told the Harris campaign, I'm not a good debater. And I wondered if he was just kind of playing that up or if he really felt that way. You know, I think Tim is a humble guy. He's from Minnesota. I mean, that was a debate between two Midwesterners. I mean, it was very legal. It was refreshingly, as I was telling the studio audience, I think it was good for America and bad for me. You have a very positive attitude, and you go in in that way. You call yourself the happy warrior. Is that something you came up with or someone else did? Someone else did. So I was getting ready for my first debate as governor, and Emily's List sent me a debate coach. And he said, you know, the happy warrior always wins the debate. And his big tip was go to the podium right when you get there and put a big smiley face on your note so you remember to be happy. And most women who are told to smile, it, you know, elicits the opposite reaction. It's annoying, yeah. So I'm like, I'm not gonna do that, but I went to a Kevin Hart show in Detroit. And one of the guys who opened for him, Niamh Lynn, told a story about how women are empowered. And it was this hilarious Shark Week story. And that's what helped me cultivate my happy warrior. It's in chapter 10. Shark Week? Shark Week MF was basically the call to action. And it's about women today are so much more empowered. And it used to be back in the day when a woman was having her period, she wouldn't want to tell you. She'd be demure and say something like, Aunt Flo is in town. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. And how now when a woman's having her period, they're more empowered. And you say, I want to come over and see. And she said, you're not coming over. It's Shark Week, mother. Okay, now it makes sense. And your grandmother seemed like a pretty great person. And she taught you a lesson that, I don't really think my grandmother taught me any lessons other than finish your meatballs. But she taught you to always come up with something nice, to say something nice about somebody or think something nice about somebody. Is that possible with somebody like Donald Trump? Is there something nice that you can honestly say about him? Well, there is one quality that he has that is really remarkable. And it knows how to feed into what people are feeling. He can read it and feed into it. He doesn't use that skill for good, unfortunately. He feeds anger against other people. But he can read what's going on with someone. And that I think is something that could be a positive trait if used for good. Okay, that was almost a positive thing. Your parents are mixed marriage politically. Yeah. Would they argue? Is that something that, is that what kind of inspired you to try to bring both parties together? Well, you know, my dad worked for George Romney. So Mitt Romney's dad was the governor of Michigan back in the day. My dad worked for him. He was a Republican. My mom worked for Attorney General for 40 years, Frank J. Kelly, a Democratic Attorney General. And, you know, they would have debates, but it would always, if it centered around values, we could find common ground. And this was before both parties were what they are today. And so it was a lot easier, I think, to have robust debates on facts, not based on everyone's individual preferences that are fed through social media. And it was a different time, but I think it's important. Do you think we can ever go back to that time? Do you think that there's a path forward as far as working together goes? Yes, there has to be. There has to be. Because I feel like there isn't. Well, I mean, we need to get you some therapy, and we're going to work together. I'm cultivating your happy warrior. All right, yeah, my happy warrior needs a little cheering up. Well, thank you for being here. This is a book. It's called True Gretsch. It's Governor Gretchen Whitmer, everybody, from Michigan. Thank you, Gretchen.