‘Frustrated and Nervous’ Gretchen Whitmer Pushes Schools to Mandate Masks

A “frustrated and nervous” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is pushing schools to mandate students wear masks this Fall.

Whitmer took a victory lap of sorts on June 22, declaring most mandates over, dropping mask requirements, and marking it as the date she “put this pandemic behind us.”

“Today is a day that we have all been looking forward to, as we can safely get back to normal day-to-day activities and put this pandemic behind us,” Whitmer said in a release, WXYZ reported. “We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the medical experts and health professionals who stood on the front lines to keep us all safe.”

But Whitmer told the Detroit Free Press just over a month later in a story published Sunday that Republicans were to blame for the prospect of a coronavirus variant spreading. According to the paper:

More people are about to get sick. Some will die. But Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says her hands are tied.

GOP lawmakers and activists successfully repealed an emergency powers law she had used to issue orders. She feels the Republican-controlled Legislature is more concerned about defeating her and scoring political points than finding a consensus based in science. Even when the health department created safety restrictions, the administration faced substantial public pushback and attempts by GOP lawmakers to curb its power.

“I don’t know how to get the politics out of the public health conversation — we’ve been trying to,” Whitmer claimed. “It is so pervasive.”

When Breitbart News published a story exposing her hypocrisy — namely, telling Michiganders to avoid travel to Florida as one of her top aides took a spring break vacation there — Whitmer said she refused to respond to a “garbage white nationalist website.”

In October, when the Michigan Supreme Court ruled her executive orders were unconstitutional, she lashed out about “a slim majority Republican vote” and urged supporters to vote for candidates backed by the Democrats, according to the Detroit News.

The Free Press reported Whitmer is preparing to fight her predicted variant increase by “pleading with residents to wear masks, get tested and, most importantly, get vaccinated.”

After lamenting the “politics” of it all, Whitmer said, “This is a Legislature that has really not been a good partner in trying to keep people safe in the pandemic.”

She indicated she would push previous restriction tactics.

“Whitmer wants schools to consider adopting mask mandates,” the paper said, which many school districts have already publicly rejected.

The Free Press concluded Whitmer’s words are “falling on deaf ears,” which is leaving the first-term governor “frustrated and nervous for what lies ahead.”