CNN is calling out Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over her reluctance to condemn “anti-Semitic” comments directed at Attorney General Dana Nessel.
During CNN’s State of the Union, Whitmer repeatedly refused to condemn attacks on Nessel’s decision to charge pro-Palestinian University of Michigan protestors from Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
“Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who is Palestinian, she called the charges from Nessel, who is Jewish, ‘shameful,’ and Tlaib said, ‘it seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs,’” CNN host Jake Tapper said.
Trapper noted Nessel’s Friday response on X that “Rashida should not use my religion to imply I cannot perform my job fairly as Attorney General. It’s anti-Semitic and wrong.”
He posed the question to Whitmer: “Do you think that Tlaib’s suggestion that Nessel’s office is biased was anti-Semitic?”
The governor repeatedly refused to answer the question directly, instead insisting “I’m not going to get in the middle of this argument they’re having.”
The response did not sit well with CNN host Dana Bash, who questioned why Whitmer repeatedly dodged during a Monday segment on Inside Politics.
“The key is, which we have learned the hard way, is you got to call it out no matter where it comes from,” Bash said of anti-Semitism. “What does it tell you about the inability, or the unwillingness, to do so when it comes from a prominent person in your own party?”
“It’s because you’re putting politics ahead of principle,” said David Chalian, CNN’s political director. “It’s not hard to say that Rashida Tlaib saying that Dana Nessel is pursuing charges because she’s Jewish is an anti-Semitic thing to say. It is.”
“You got to call it out,” he said.
Whitmer eventually did, after her CNN interview prompted public rebukes from the Anti-Defamation League and others.
On Monday, Whitmer issued a statement to CNN.
“The suggestion that Attorney General Nessel would make charging decisions based on her religion as opposed to the rule of law is anti-Semitic,” Whitmer wrote. “Attorney General Nessel has always conducted her work with integrity and followed the rule of law. We must all use our platform and voices to call out hateful rhetoric and racist tropes.”
