Gov. Gretchen Whitmer calls boat controversy 'failed attempt at humor'
LANSING, Mich. — On Tuesday during a news conference, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer responded to controversy surrounding her husband's attempt to get their family's boat in the water over the holiday weekend.
"My husband made a failed attempt at humor last week when checking in with the small business that helps with our boat and dock up north. Knowing it wouldn't make a difference, he jokingly asked if being married to me might move him up in the que," said Whitmer. "Obviously with the motorized boating prohibition in our early days of COVID-19, he thought it might get a laugh. It didn't. To be honest I wasn't laughing either when it was relayed to me because I knew how it would be perceived."
Whitmer went on to say her husband regretted his actions and that was all her family had to say about it.
Whitmer said her family had been staying home mostly the past two months. She said her husband did go up to their cabin to rake leaves for two days, but no one else went with him.
"My family has had men with automatic riffles standing in view of our front window outside of our home. We have read the vile things people have said and written in response to my stay at home, stay safe order. My daughters have seen the likeness of their mother hung from a noose in effigy," said Whitmer. "Even my neighbors have been terrorized as they tried to enjoy their Memorial Day weekend up in Antrim County, despite the fact that I was 200 miles away."
The Detroit News first reported Whitmer's husband, Dr. Marc Mallory, called NorthShore Dock LLC to get a boat put into the water near the family's cabin in Elk Rapids.
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