A top Michigan Republican Party official called leading female Democratic officials in the state “witches.”
Ron Weiser, the chairman of the state GOP, made the comments during a Thursday evening event at a North Oakland Republican Club meeting. He also quipped about an “assassination” to remove the two sitting GOP congressmen from the state who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump.
“Our job now is to soften up those three witches and make sure that when we have good candidates to run against them, that they are ready for the burning at the stake,” Weiser said at one point, according to the Detroit News. “And maybe, the press heard that, too.”
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The three Democratic officials he referenced were Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. They are all up for reelection in 2022.
Nessel responded on social media.
“Witches who magically decrease Covid spread, increase voter turnout and hold sexual predators accountable without any help from the legislature? Sign me up for that coven. Do better, Michigan GOP,” she said.
Witches who magically decrease Covid spread, increase voter turnout and hold sexual predators accountable without any help from the legislature?
Sign me up for that coven.
Do better, Michigan GOP. https://t.co/v14V0mJE4G pic.twitter.com/NC2XTuNs3c
— Dana Nessel (@dananessel) March 26, 2021
The post included a Halloween-themed photo of Whitmer, Nessel, and Benson with animated witches’ hats on their heads.
Bobby Leddy, a spokesman for Whitmer, told the Associated Press that Weiser’s rhetoric is “destructive and downright dangerous” given the increased threats facing elected officials. Whitmer, who has faced intense backlash over coronavirus restrictions, was the target in what the FBI described as a failed kidnapping plot last fall.
“Secretary Benson and her colleagues have experienced firsthand how this rhetoric is later used as justification for very real threats made against government officials, election administrators and democracy itself,” Benson’s spokeswoman, Tracy Wimmer, said. “Any leader who does not resoundingly denounce this kind of behavior and attitude is complicit in their silence.”
At the Thursday event, one person in the audience asked the chairman about the “witches in our party,” a reference to Reps. Fred Upton and Peter Meijer, who were among the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in January in connection to the Capitol siege. Trump was successfully impeached a second time but acquitted by the Senate.
Weiser said: “Ma’am, other than assassination, I have no other way other than voting out. OK? You people have to go out there and support their opponents. You have to do what you need to get out the vote in those areas. That’s how you beat people.”
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Party spokesman Ted Goodman, in response to Weiser’s comments, said the chairman has “personally donated to all Republican congressmen in Michigan and is focused on defeating Democrats, rather than involving the party in primary fights.”
“The chairman was making it clear that the primary election process is how we decide our nominees for office,” he added. “To suggest anything else is dishonest and irresponsible.”
Members of the University of Michigan board of regents have called for Weiser, another member of the board, to resign, according to the Detroit Free Press. He is also one of the university’s biggest donors. He and his wife have given more than $100 million to the school he graduated from in 1966.
