GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Michigan's two major party candidates for governor battled over road repairs, health care, the environment and many other issues Friday in an aggressive and fast-moving debate on live TV.
Republican Bill Schuette sought to portray Democrat Gretchen Whitmer and her running mate, Garlin Gilchrist II, as extremists, saying Whitmer favors massive tax hikes and abolishing the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, while Gilchrist sits on dangerously dilapidated Detroit property and has spouted anti-semitic and pro-Hamas rhetoric on Twitter.
Whitmer accused Schuette of making things up in a desperate effort to overcome his trailing position in public opinion polls. "He's the one who hangs out with anti-semites like (Michigan rock musician) Ted Nugent and (former aide to President Donald Trump) Steve Bannon," Whitmer shot back.
And in a dramatic reversal from his debates in the Republican primary in which he repeatedly touted his endorsement from Trump, Schuette did not invoke the president's name once.
The closest Schuette came to mentioning Trump — shown by polls to now be highly unpopular in Michigan, a state he won in the 2016 presidential election — was when he said: “My relationship with the White House will bring (federal money) back to Michigan."
Schuette and Whitmer started with a friendly handshake in their first one-on-one encounter since they won their respective primaries on Aug. 7, but the debate quickly turned nasty.
Host Rick Albin of WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids quickly set the tone. His first question was about a video from a 1989 TV interview outtake released this week in which Schuette appeared to try to flirt with the female camera operator, telling her: "I will do anything you want," but "some things I may not let you run the camera on."
Schuette issued a statement Wednesday saying he was embarrassed by the video, adding that he was apparently trying to be funny before he got married. Asked about the video on Friday, he immediately pivoted onto the attack. He said the video outtake was "a Planned Parenthood Democratic hit job," and the video he is more interested in was one featuring a dilapidated Detroit building owned by Whitmer's running mate, Garlin Gilchrist II, which is facing possible repossession from the Detroit Land Bank Authority.
Whitmer described the TV interview outtake featuring Schuette as "bizarre," but said: "I don't care about that video. I care about getting to the issues that really matter to people in this state."
She then attacked Schuette for taking repeated legal action as attorney general to try to overturn the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. She said that if Schuette had been successful, his actions would have ended health insurance protections for patients with pre-existing conditions.
Schuette replied that Obamacare didn't work, He said premiums went up and the insurance exchanges it set up for people to buy coverage didn't work. "So I filed lawsuits," he said. But he added that he has always maintained that he favors protections that would bar insurance companies from refusing to sell policies to people with pre-existing health conditions.
The news about Gilchrist's dilapidated Detroit property was first reported Friday by Deadline Detroit. Gilchrist has attempted to walk back his 2009 tweets about Israel and Hamas, saying he supports Israel and was commenting on a complex situation he did not fully understand.
Schuette's charge that Whitmer wants to abolish ICE — a position advanced by some on the left wing of the Democratic Party — stems from a TV interview at a June 30 rally in Lansing in which Whitmer nods her head affirmatively as she walks away and says, "Yeah, I think our governor should step up," in response to questions about whether ICE should be abolished following the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexican border.
Bridge Magazine's "Truth Squad" has labeled Schuette's charge "misleading," noting that she has explicitly said that while she condemns some of ICE's actions at the border, she does not think the agency should be abolished. Bridge called Whitmer's response to the ICE question "not her finest moment on the campaign trail."
Whitmer said after the debate that she was aware of Gilchrist's Detroit building problem before she selected him as her running mate and the two had discussed the issue, but she was not aware of "the imminent need to remedy it" until recently. That will now happen, she said.
On education, where Schuette has promised a greater emphasis on reading and creation of a cabinet-level literacy official, Whitmer repeatedly pointed out that in fighting a 2016 lawsuit brought on behalf of Detroit-area students, Schuette's officials had successfully argued that Michigan students have no constitutional right to literacy.
The two also sparred on the condition of Michigan roads, with Schuette warning that Whitmer planned a massive tax hike, such as a 20-cent-gallon increase in the price of gas.
"Gretchen Whitmer wants to raise your taxes — I'm going to protect your wallet," Schuette said.
Whitmer said that too was false. If the Legislature wouldn't raise more road revenue through user fees and taxes, she would use $2 billion in government bonding to access another $1 billion in federal money to "fix the damn roads," which she said are already costing Michigan residents hundreds of dollars a year in extra road repair costs.
“Bill’s plan (to fix the roads) has two steps," Whitmer said. "Get elected and figure it out. We deserve better.”
A small group of anti-Schuette protesters stood on the sidewalk outside the TV studio prior to the debate.
Friday night's debate was the first of two scheduled between Whitmer and Schuette. The next is set for Oct. 24 at WDIV-TV (Channel 4) in Detroit.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@wzzm13.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@wzzm13.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.