Left-wing activists and highly partisan election officials in various states are attempting to keep former President Donald Trump off the ballot due to claims that he’s an insurrectionist, but those very same people give Democrats such as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) a pass when they themselves actually engaged in insurrection.
Anti-democratic secretaries of state, such as Colorado’s Jena Griswold and Maine’s Shenna Bellows, moved to unilaterally remove the Republican front-runner from the ballot this year, claiming Trump engaged in insurrection and is therefore disqualified from the office of the presidency. That decision is under review by the Supreme Court.
As they wring their hands and moralize about Trump’s alleged involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, it reminds me of the time Whitmer, then the Michigan Senate minority leader, staged her own insurrection of sorts at the state Capitol in 2012, when she opposed a right-to-work bill.
Due to threats of violence and intimidation from activists, the Michigan Capitol was closed for security reasons. A highly respected source involved in security that day told me Whitmer let agitators in through a ground-floor window. Some attempted to disrupt the proceedings by forcing their way onto the Senate floor. Whitmer’s incitement led to multiple arrests.
In 2018, an unashamed Whitmer bragged about her attempts to thwart the democratic process that day, claiming she “led the resistance” from her Capitol office. She said during the same interview that she “threw open the doors of the Capitol,” which had been locked to protect the lawmakers from the mob.
Whitmer is Michigan’s original “insurrectionist.” She encouraged violence and intimidation as a means to get her way when she was a leader in the legislature.
So, if the Left is going to attempt to banish Trump from holding any future political office, Whitmer should be held to the same standard.
That’s the argument made in an amicus brief in the Colorado case by former Rep. Peter Meijer, according to the Midwesterner.
“The Colorado Supreme Court’s interpretation of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment transforms the prohibition from one that disqualifies individuals who served in an organization akin to the Confederacy, to one that punishes on a much larger scale, for much smaller offenses,” Meijer’s brief reads. “Indeed, the majority’s interpretation could be easily applied to indirect or inchoate offenses, such as mere speech, ‘attempted insurrection or rebellion, conspiracy to commit insurrection or rebellion, or accessory liability (before- or after-the-fact) in relation to insurrection or rebellion.'”
Therefore, Meijer argues, Whitmer’s name should be struck from any future election ballots for her role in the 2012 right-to-work protest at the Michigan state Capitol.
“A clever recitation of the facts—and a faithful application of the majority opinion—supports a claim that Governor Whitmer is not eligible for office under Section Three,” according to the Meijer brief. “In an effort to halt government business in passing a right to work law, then-Senator Whitmer championed the protestors. Based on actual events, her political opponents could claim (and have claimed) that when the protestors could not get inside of the building, Whitmer ‘opened her ground-floor Capitol office window to let them in.’ The protests were not peaceful. Because of the size and unruly behavior of the crowd that then-Senator Whitmer purportedly aided, the state Capitol building went under lockdown. Because the demonstrators, or ‘insurrectionists,’ would not relent, police had to use force and ‘chemical munitions’ to disburse and subdue the mob. Eight people were arrested.
“Given these events,” it continues, “if Section Three means what the Colorado Supreme Court claims, Governor Whitmer could be excluded from the ballot due to ‘insurrectionist’ activities, based on a purported attempt to halt government proceedings with the force of a mob.”
Meijer also argues that Whitmer ally and Hamas sympathizer Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) should be disqualified from holding office because she participated in an Oct. 18, 2023, anti-Israel demonstration at the U.S. Capitol. That day, anti-Israel protesters held a rally where Tlaib spoke.
“Hundreds of anti-Israel protestors gathered both inside and outside of the U.S. Capitol, and then engaged in a massive disruption inside a House office building, which forced Capitol Police to maintain order and to ensure that lawmakers could safely conduct business by arresting approximately 300 people,” Meijer wrote in the brief. “Based on her rhetoric and participation with the protest, Representative Tlaib was censured by the House of Representatives in a bipartisan vote.”
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Supreme Court justices reportedly expressed skepticism about the Colorado Supreme Court’s conclusions because Trump has never been charged with, much less convicted of, insurrection. They are right to be concerned.
But if this is the standard by which partisan Democratic election officials will judge Republicans, then they should hold their side to the same standard, too. Unfortunately, the Democratic saboteurs posing as self-appointed guardians of democracy have demonstrated so far that they are little more than partisan actors determined to use our election laws and systems to benefit their side and protect insurrectionists such as Whitmer and Tlaib.
Tudor Dixon is a former gubernatorial candidate, executive in Michigan’s steel industry, breast cancer survivor, and working mother of four girls. She is currently the host of The Tudor Dixon Podcast.
