Former Democratic Rep. Susan Wild called Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s decision to hide her face in a photo at the White House “cringey” during an appearance Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I apologize ahead of time to the Democrats at the table because I don’t mean it aimed at you, but one thing that seemed to symbolize kind of the weird place that Democrats are in, and it is this photograph of governor Gretchen Whitmer standing in the White House,” CNN host Jake Tapper began, speaking to his panel. “It’s a picture of Gretchen Whitmer hiding her face.”
Whitmer was seen temporarily shielding her face from cameras in the Oval Office by holding up a folder, according to a photo by the New York Times. She later lowered the folder as the president spoke to the press and encouraged Whitmer to comment as well. Tapper asked Wild what was going on with her party during the discussion about the photo.
“That begs the question of what she was doing there anyway,” Wild said, explaining that Whitmer was there to talk to the president about issues pertinent to her state. “So, you know what I would have done if that was me, I would have said, ‘I‘m not going in there,’ or when the press came in or the cameras came in, I would have been out of there. It’s cringey.”
TRUMP PRAISES DEM GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER AFTER SLAMMING HER LAST YEAR: ‘VERY GOOD PERSON’
“The American automakers are happy about these tariffs. So, I understand why she went. But that was the ultimate cringey move right there. That was right out of ‘Veep,'” Wild added.
President Donald Trump praised Whitmer after their meeting at the White House and said she had done a good job. According to a statement from a spokesperson for Whitmer, the governor and president discussed “the northern Michigan ice storm, investing in Michigan’s defense assets, like Selfridge Air National Guard Base, tariffs and the importance of creating good-paying American jobs and bringing back critical supply chains and keeping our Great Lakes clean and safe.”
“We’re honored to have Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan, great state of Michigan. And, she’s been — she’s really done an excellent job. And a very good person,” Trump said during the press conference on Wednesday.
Whitmer is widely seen as a future presidential candidate given she’s the two-term governor of a swing state.
Whitmer told reporters afterward that she thought she was coming into the Oval Office for a one-on-one meeting with the president and was surprised by the press conference.
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Whitmer was lambasted by Democrats after joining Trump in the Oval Office and suggested she was used as a political “prop.”
“Just a f—ing disaster,” said one Democratic operative, who usually supports Whitmer but spoke anonymously to NBC News. “It feels like it removes some of the momentum she had as a politically savvy swing-state Dem.”
CNN senior reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere called the moment a “huge embarrassment” on Thursday, while CNN host Audie Cornish said bluntly, “This does not look like the politics of resistance.”
Dovere also insinuated that the situation was set up by the Trump team, saying, “She [Gov. Whitmer] went for this meeting with the president, and he used her as a prop.”
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and Madison Colombo contributed to this report.
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