‘He regrets it. I wish it wouldn’t have happened…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) After Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s husband was caught trying to leverage his political position in asking for the installation of his boat to be sped up last week, Whitmer defended his request on Tuesday as a “failed attempt at humor.”
“Knowing it wouldn’t make a difference, he jokingly asked if being married to me might move him up,” Whitmer said of her husband, Marc Mallory, during a press conference. “He regrets it. I wish it wouldn’t have happened. And that’s really all we have to say about it.”
A northern Michigan dock owner, Tad Dowker, said in a Facebook post last week that Mallory had asked the dock if he could get his boat in the water before Memorial Day weekend.
Dowker’s employees informed Mallory that they had a long list of clients they needed to work through, and that Mallory’s request would not be possible.
Mallory then replied, “I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?” according to Dowker’s now-deleted Facebook post.
Critics were quick to point out that the dock Mallory stored his boat in is located near Traverse City, Mich., which has begun to reopen.
That means Mallory planned to travel from Lansing to Traverse City during Memorial Day weekend, despite the fact that Whitmer had warned Michiganders against doing that exact thing just a few days prior.
“If you don’t live in these regions … think long and hard before you take a trip into them,” Whitmer said on May 18. “Don’t descend on Traverse City from all regions of the state.”
When asked why her husband was allowed to flout the rules, Whitmer claimed that he was only going up to their Traverse City home “for a night or two” to “rake the leaves.”
Well, if that’s the case, then why did he need his boat in the water before Memorial Day weekend?
“Using your wife’s political office to score favors is not a laughing matter,” said Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox. “The only joke here is that Governor Whitmer doesn’t seem to understand how serious it is for a family member to misuse your office.”