Whitmer Shocked by Dr. Atlas’ Call for Michigan to ‘Rise Up’

The State of Michigan has been in the crosshairs of the coronavirus controversy for months on end, and it doesn’t appear as though everything will be back to normal any time soon.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge here in the United State, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has once again called for the state to enter a bit of a lockdown, hoping to prevent the spread of coronavirus by employing the use of face masks and by practicing social distancing.  This has predictably irked a great many Michiganders, again pushing citizens to voice their concerns over what they see as a governmental intrusion into their lives.

Dr. Scott Atlas, an advisor to President Trump on the subject of the pandemic, has now suggested that the people of the Wolverine State “rise up” against these new ordinances.

This simply shocked Governor Whitmer. 

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Monday that she was stunned by a call from one of President Donald Trump’s top coronavirus advisers for people in her state to “rise up” against new restrictions aimed at slowing the disease’s deadly surge.

“It actually took my breath away, to tell you the truth,” Whitmer told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” referring to a tweet posted over the weekend by Scott Atlas, whose skepticism toward Covid-19 mitigation strategies has been the subject of widespread criticism.

After Whitmer announced Sunday a three-week pause on indoor dining, in-person learning and several other activities, Atlas wrote: “The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept. #FreedomMatters #StepUp.”

Atlas would go on to reiterate that he was not suggesting anything violent.

Governor Whitmer was the intended target of a kidnapping plot uncovered by the FBI just weeks ago, in which a group of far-right extremists planned to detonate a bomb under a traffic bridge as a distraction, and then snatch Whitmer during the ensuing chaos.