Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Accused of Encouraging Trump’s Assassination

Over the last few weeks, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been relentless in accusing President Donald Trump of encouraging the kind of loons who are now charged with kidnapping her as part of a plot to overthrow the government. But after Whitmer appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this Sunday with a controversial sign in the background, members of the president’s support team threw the accusations back at her.

“Governor Gretchen Whitmer displayed an ’86 45′ sign during her TV appearance,” Trump War Room tweeted. “86 can be shorthand for killing someone. Whitmer is encouraging assassination attempts against President Trump just weeks after someone sent a ricin-laced package to the White House.”

Here’s a look at Whitmer and the sign behind her (look underneath the plant):

In remarks to Fox News, Trump campaign spokesperson Courtney Parella said, “By Gretchen Whitmer’s own standard, displaying something encouraging people to ‘86’ the President is employing dangerous rhetoric.”

Now this is a bit of a stretch, we’ll admit. “86” is fairly common parlance when talking about getting rid of something or throwing it away. Whitmer has plenty of plausible deniability to say that the sign merely means that Trump should be voted out.

On the other hand, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. So if Whitmer is going to be out there accusing Trump of doing everything short of leading an armed militia of white supremacist lunatics, it’s absolutely fair for her to be called out on similarly-ridiculous charges. At the very least, this shows how absurd it is to read DOG WHISTLES into every little thing…not that we expect Whitmer or her fellow Democrats to get the message.

“It’s incredibly disturbing that the President of the United States — 10 days after a plot to kidnap, put me on trial, and execute me — 10 days after that was uncovered, the president is at it again and inspiring, incentivizing and inciting this kind of domestic terrorism,” Whitmer said on Sunday.

And what did Trump say that was so terrible? He told the crowd that “you gotta get your governor to open your state back up.”

Really gives you chills, eh?

So yeah, if Whitmer is going to read the “inciting of domestic terrorism” into those remarks, it’s more than fair for Trump to call out the 8645 sign.