MICHIGAN, USA — Governor Gretchen Whitmer clarified a series of recent comments pertaining to the newly-reinstated federal vaccine mandate after opponents sought to accuse her office of ‘flip-flopping’ its stance.
The debate stems from a roundtable Whitmer hosted with Montcalm County business leaders several weeks earlier on December 6.
The Daily News quoted the governor as saying: "I know if that mandate happens, we’re going to lose state employees.”
The newspaper claimed she went on to suggest, “It’s going to be a problem.”
Once an appellate court gave the go-ahead to move forward with the federal mandate--which remained, during the time of her earlier remarks, under temporary suspension by a lower court—however, Governor Whitmer voiced her support.
Attorney General Dana Nessel added she would defend the mandate if necessary.
The Michigan GOP, which accused Whitmer of shifting her position for political reasons, clarified its stance in an emailed statement Friday:
“Gretchen Whitmer thinks she’s a chameleon, changing to fit and pander in different environments. It’s no surprise she’s already flip flopped to support Joe Biden’s mandate after saying it was a problem. This is the same type of inconsistent, erratic behavior she’s displayed her entire tenure against this virus. She can’t be trusted and that’s why Michigan will vote her out in 2022.”
Whitmer’s office countered that view in an emailed statement and a Thursday phone conversation with 13 On Your Side.
It claimed the governor’s remarks had been misunderstood and mischaracterized.
Despite her overarching support of the federal mandate, the concerns she voiced with regard to how the requirement would be implemented and what that would mean for tens of thousands of state workers—some of whom remain unvaccinated—lingered.
“Since the safe and effective vaccines became widely available, Governor Whitmer has been working to support the goal of increasing our state’s vaccination numbers, so that we can protect more Michiganders and finally end this pandemic. While our approach in Michigan has not included any sort of mandate or restriction, the courts have allowed the federal government’s vaccine rule to move forward, which means employers across the country, including the state government in Michigan, will need to draft a plan to keep employees safe at work. As an employer of nearly 50,000 State of Michigan employees, the governor has been a sympathetic partner to businesses while we try to understand how the federal vaccine rule will work for our employees. To help alleviate some of that stress, the governor signed into law, and will be disbursing, $500 million in funding to help businesses throughout the state weather the pandemic as we all work to figure out the logistics and implementation process to be in compliance with the federal government’s new rule.”
A Howard City business leader who pressed to have her concerns addressed during that early December roundtable spoke with 13 On Your Side via phone Thursday:
“When we talked about employment issues… what do you expect businesses to do,” Ronna Wabaninkee, a manager at Mattson’s Hardware in Howard City questioned. “Once we can't keep? We can't really keep people in the workforce right now… what are we going to do when we require people to do something like that? There was no answer.”
Wabaninkee shared concerns the state would ultimately draft a vaccine mandate of its own, fearing its provisions might apply to a broader segment of the population than the federal mandate, including small businesses.
To clarify, the governor’s office has repeatedly denied any plans to issue a state-level vaccine mandate.
The state has also said it had no plans to reintroduce the sweeping restrictions Whitmer spearheaded at the pandemic’s outset.
In terms of what the federal mandate will require, Whitmer’s office said in a statement it would begin to draft plans to keep the approximately 50,000 workers on public payroll safe, though it admitted Thursday it was still determining how and to whom the mandate would apply.
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