Governor Whitmer Grilled By Members of Congress

Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer isn’t used to being grilled. But that’s just what happened during pointed questioning and some accusations from members of the US House of representatives.  The Governor appeared before a US House Committee by a TV connection. The plan set up by Democratic leaders in the U.S. House was for Whitmer to get a chance to talk about what she claims is an effective and safe plan she is managing to deal with the COVID -19 virus outbreak.

Expected or not, the Governor took hard questions. Republican committee members challenged her assertions and reasoning. A lot of the focus was on the decision to allow COVID-19 patients to return to long care facilities throughout the state.   The Governor took tough questions about the issue from Michigan Republican Tim Walberg and David McKinley of  West Virginia. Walberg started in with questions about what took the Governor so long to change her policies about admissions and readmissions to nursing homes. Walberg noting Michigan ranks fifth in the nation for deaths attributed to the virus.
Congressman McKinley also took the Governor to task for her regular attacks on President Donald Trump and the administration's work to help states manage the virus outbreak.  Whitmer called the administration’s work uneven. When McKinley got into questions about mandatory testing of nursing home residents and staff the Governor had enough and told him she was not about to go toe to toe with the congressman.

The Governor took steps to mitigate the questions by saying her administration has been working with who she considers top-flight medical experts who had a say in every virus control step that she put into practice.