Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Friday that even though federal charges have been filed against people allegedly involved in a plot to kidnap her, she and other officials are still being threatened, and President Donald Trump is still attacking her.
"There is ongoing rhetoric," the Democrat governor told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America." "Even the president last night in his tweetstorm won't stop attacking me, and I think that it's creating a very dangerous situation, not just for me, but for people in leadership roles who are trying to save lives all across this country."
The U.S. Department of Justice announced charges Thursday against Adam Fox, Ty Garbin, Kaleb Franks, Daniel Harris, and Brandon Caserta, all of Michigan, and Barry Croft of Delaware. Separately, seven others have also been charged under the state's anti-terrorism laws for allegedly targeting police and the state Capitol.
They are accused of plotting to take Whitmer and other state leaders hostage at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, and to hold the governor for a "trial" and then execute her.
Thursday night, Trump tweeted that Whitmer has "done a terrible job," and complained that rather than thanking the government for stopping the plot against her, "she calls me a white supremacist."
"This was a very serious thought-out plot to kill police officers, to bomb our capital, killing Democrats and Republicans alike, and to kidnap and ultimately put me on trial and kill me as well," Whitmer said Friday. "These are the types of things you hear from groups like ISIS. This is not a militia; it is a domestic terror organization."
She said Trump and his administration are "complicit" in the threats, she told Stephanopoulos, because they encourage and offer "safe harbor" to domestic terrorists.
"Each time he has tweeted about me, each time that he has said 'liberate Michigan' and said I should negotiate with the very people who are arrested because they're 'good people,' that incites more domestic terror," Whitmer said. "This White House has a duty to call it out and they won't do it; in fact, they encourage it."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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