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Gretchen Whitmer: “Everyone was so pissed off that I pulled kids out of school.”

Featuring: Gretchen Whitmer, Democratic | Governor of Michigan

What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer

Published August 13, 2026 | Video Starts at 23:58

They didn't have a lot of the experiences that we had growing up. Their whole existence is so different with technology and then living through a pandemic during really important, formative years. You know, Everyone was so pissed off that I pulled kids out of school. Yes. I canceled prom. I canceled graduation. Guess what? I canceled my own kids. Proms and graduation. So I was hearing it inside my house as well as out on the front lawn. (23:58–24:02)

CLAIM

Asserts that there was significant public discontent over her decision to close schools.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Gretchen Whitmer

“In our school, 1.4 million kids get two meals a day, five days a week because of that work.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 14:27-14:33
“I flipped the House and the Senate for the first time in 40 years.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 43:20-43:23
“Michigan's the most diverse swing state.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 1:01:23-1:01:26
“Flint, you couldn't drink the water.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 02:27-02:29
“I came out with a gas tax, which, as you can imagine, very unpopular.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 04:12-04:17
“I couldn't even get the Democrats in the legislature to introduce [the gas tax] for me.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 04:19-04:19
“So then I did a bond because I couldn't get the legislation.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 04:24-04:27
“We passed marijuana taxes and we took all the money that was raised at the pump and put it into roads.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 04:36-04:45
“Fighter mission at Sel Air National Guard Base. And I tried to get that done under the Biden administration, get over the finish line, but I…”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 09:27-09:37
“They [Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina] were really representative of the country. And I feel like Michigan is, in a way, that is unique.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 11:45-1:01:45
“Tariffs have really hurt Michigan, and so our budget was tougher this year.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 12:52-12:59
“With the, all the Medicaid cuts out of D.C. and then what's on the horizon in terms of Medicaid cuts from the big happy bill or whatever the…”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 12:59-13:09
“Michigan now, if you're LGBTQ, you've got full civil rights protections in your home and in your workplace, which you didn't have before.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 14:33-14:41
“We now have enshrined women's reproductive rights under the Constitution.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 14:41-14:46
“I would like to have done more when it comes to campaign finance reform, you know, transparency.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 15:43-15:50
“The leadership in the House changed and the House didn't send [the bills] to me.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 21:46-21:46
“Now the Supreme Court has weighed in, but here we are 18 months later.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 21:52-21:56
“These bills had massive ramifications for the budget.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 21:56-21:59
“My first term, it was a completely Republican legislature all four years.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 22:43-22:47
“During COVID they sued me. They tried to take away my powers.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 22:47-22:50
“I used some extraordinary powers of the governor's office.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 22:51-22:55
“I canceled prom. I canceled graduation.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 24:02-24:06
“I was vetted for Biden.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 25:28-25:30
“We built a global procurement operation essentially overnight.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 27:30-27:35
“We got to build a global procurement operation.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 28:16-28:20
“We were undercut by the federal government.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 28:21-28:24
“I just endorsed the woman who's running to replace me, Jaslyn Benson, our Secretary of state.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 32:00-32:07
“I've got a Fight like Hell pack.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 32:53-32:55
“We're recruiting and training people. So a lot of those folks that won in Virginia to flip the legislature.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 33:01-33:07
“We want to get more people covered with health care.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 38:15-38:18
“We want to help bring down the cost of things.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 38:18-38:21
“I don't want chaotic tariff policies that make Michiganders lives more expensive and harder.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 38:21-38:27
“I don't want to be at a verbal war and trade war with Canada for God's sake.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 38:26-38:32
“I think is that in Michigan even more than maybe other parts of the country because we've got Such a large Arab population.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 40:23-40:33
“The thought of the real threat of John James as the next governor of Michigan or Mike Rogers going to the US Senate and making the…”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 41:16-41:27
“I'm also the vice chair of our organization, the Democratic Governors Association.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 41:42-41:46
“These governor's races, I think if we've learned anything in the last 10 years, who the governor is matters.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 41:58-42:06
“When the administration cut off SNAP benefits, it was Democratic governors who marshaled the resources and moved fast to try to make sure…”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 42:13-42:22
“We spend ungodly sums of money to get people elected.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 46:01-46:05
“We should actually fix the rules in this country.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 46:07-46:11
“There's no way to win election [without spending large sums of money].”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 50:24-50:28
“You could do so much good with the money that we waste on slandering one another.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 50:48-50:57
“One scintilla of the work that needs to be done is rebuilding a relationship with Canada.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 53:54-53:58
“It's going to take successive administrations before the world says America's... back.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 55:04-55:04
“We can't make any assumptions, despite how bad the [current] administration's numbers are and how hard the policies have been on our…”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 57:59-58:07
“I think we could pick up some congressional seats here in Michigan, here as well. House seats.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 58:22-58:28
“I think that there's a possibility that we could have a Democratic trifecta at the state level here in Michigan.”
What Democrats Can Learn From Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer | Uploaded August 13, 2026 | 58:27-58:34