'We're prepared'： Michigan Gov. 'Big Gretch' on battling election deniers poised for new Trump coup

We all know that Michigan is key to victory in the presidential election, and Vice President Kamala Harris has the state's hugely popular governor, Gretchen Whitmer, as her campaign co-chair. Yesterday, Whitmer joined another popular swing state governor, Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro, in a Philly suburb to rally roughly 1,000 supporters. Shapiro is a top contender to be Harris' running mate. Joining me now is Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, co-chair of the Harris campaign and author of True Grit, What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between. Madam Governor, it is so good to see you. Thanks, Joy. It's so good to be with you. I know. For the first time. Let's talk about this, because one of the things that I do find just so interesting about you is your nickname. Yeah. My friends in Michigan call you Big Gretch. You wrote here True Gretch. How did you come to embrace that name? Well, you know, I was my grandmother's. I'm named after both my grandmas, Gretchen and Esther. So I'm Gretchen Esther Whitmer. Grandma Gretchen always said, don't let them call you anything shorter than Gretchen. And your name is Gretchen. So I've had an aversion to Gretch. But during the pandemic, when the former president was attacking me and I was getting all the threats. People of Detroit started calling me Big Grit because I was standing up for people, and there's a song, you know, G-Mac Cash, a rapper in Detroit, made a song, Big Grit, and it's my new favorite nickname. You know what? And my former stage manager, Don Wormley, the late, great Don Wormley, used to call me Big Cheryl, and I used to find it so hilarious because it's from a very popular sitcom from the late 80s. I'm like, yeah, I kind of embrace it. It's cool. Let's talk a little bit about what everyone is talking about regarding you. Let's get it out of the way. Are you going to be on the ticket? Would you be interested in being vice president? I know you said maybe no. What do you think? First, let me say this. I think Kamala Harris is going to be an excellent president. And she is going to pick a phenomenal running mate. I am not among the candidates in the mix. I've made a commitment to serve out my term in Michigan. I'm going to keep that commitment. And I'm going to be her best friend on the ground in a state she's got to win to win this thing. What does she need to do to win the state of Michigan? We got a lot of work to do. People are really excited. I mean, we're seeing people wanting to volunteer and make contributions. And I mean, there's an energy, whether it's in Michigan or I was in New Hampshire at the end of last week for the Harris campaign. I was in Pennsylvania yesterday with Josh Shapiro for the Harris campaign. I mean, we're having bigger numbers than we expect. People are really jazzed up. But in the swing states, it is. It's a dead heat. Yeah. Big improvement from where it was a couple weeks ago, but it's a dead heat, so we can't take our eye off the ball. Yeah, and the reason I think people keep bringing it up is you happen to be leading an all-woman administration. All of the state-level white officers, statewide-level officers in Michigan are women, so it's proof it can be done. So I think people are like, if it can be done in Michigan, so I'm going to leave it there because you've made it clear. I do want to talk about one other thing before we get to your amazing book. There are election deniers who have placed themselves in positions to certify elections in multiple states, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. What can be done to counter efforts to refuse to certify an election? Let's say Vice President Harris actually prevails in the state of Michigan. Well, one of the things I know is we know the law better than the other guys do. And so we're prepared to use every tool at our At our disposal to ensure votes get counted, that we get certified, et cetera. That being said, we're welcoming people who want to come knock doors into Michigan. We're welcoming lawyers who want to help make sure that we're ready for all the legal challenges that we're anticipating. And, you know, I think that we've got great people. We've enhanced our laws to protect election workers, create tougher penalties for people that, you know, try to stoke violence. But all that being said, I we can't. Make any assumptions here. We've got to keep doing the work, and I think that's why a focus on Michigan is going to have to remain all the way through this election. And you feel that things have shifted with the vice president as the head of the ticket, including in places with high Arab-American populations in Michigan? I do think so. I take nobody and no vote for granted, so we're showing up and doing the work, but yes. Let's talk about this book. You wrote this book at a time when you are very much in the spotlight, and you talk about some of the more painful experiences that you've had as governor. I mean, there was a plot against your life. The idea that for doing things like mask mandates and trying to prevent people from dying from COVID. When you go back and process those experiences, what do you take from them? Well, I remember standing in my office one day when I was about to give my regular update, a COVID update, and looking out the window, and there was a big demonstration. People showed up with Confederate flags, Nazi symbols. They had a dark-haired Barbie hanging from a noose. And I took a picture, it's in the book, from my office, and it said half-wit, which is what one of the... One of the insults that Trump threw my way is the reason we need the Second Amendment. And I share that because that was the moment where I realized, OK, I better get the heck away from the window. I don't want any of the people out there with the long guns to see me standing there when they've got this stuff. But it was just a stunning moment when I realized I'm trying to save people's lives and people are threatening mine. The political rhetoric in this country has gotten so dangerous. And I'm glad to see someone like Mike Johnson say, let's turn down the heat. But I want to be very clear. I've been seeing this for three years. I was the target of it, stoked by the leader of their party. And so it's not okay to call it out only when it's turned on you. We all have a responsibility here, Republicans and Democrats alike, to bring the heat down in this country, and we deserve better. And what is your takeaway? There are so many things that that brings up. Open carry, you know, the idea of people being able to easily get their hands on guns, the fact that people could show up at your workplace, which is the people's workplace, armed, is that something that when you take away from it needs to change, even in Michigan? We have to change it. I mean, this country is founded on robust debate. They used to have knock-down drag-outs at the Capitol, but no one was threatening one another's lives. They could agree on a set of facts and have very different views on them and have those debates and find some common ground at the end of the day. Right now, we see so many people who are eager to divide us and stoke violence and turn their supporters against their political opponent as though they are enemies. That's unacceptable. That is dangerous. And the thing I think about is what are we teaching our young people? I know our kids are roughly the same age. They've come to age in a time where people regularly threaten violence against one another, pick up guns and try to kill one another. It's not acceptable, and we've got to take it on. One of the most popular governors in the country, somebody who is on the minds of a lot of people in this really historic election season, the book is True Grit, what I've learned about life, leadership, and everything in between. I think you're going to want to read this because you've definitely learned a lot and lived a very exciting life in your youth, in your young life so far. Governor Gretchen Whitmer, thank you so much.