UP Gazette

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer doesn't have the necessary experience to make tough decisions, which has become apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rep. Beau LaFave (R-Iron Mountain) told the UP Gazette.

"I think the governor fundamentally doesn’t know how to manage a crisis,” LaFave said.

Whitmer spent 14 years in the minority party in the statehouse but has never had any major responsibility, he claimed.

Rep. Beau LaFave | Michigan House Republicans

“And that lack of experience is really showing during this terrible pandemic,” LaFave told the UP Gazette.

He said the goal of the state’s shutdown was to take 15 days to slow the spread of COVID-19 so the health care system would not get overwhelmed. Lockdowns don’t prevent virus transmission effectively, according to LaFave.

In rural Michigan where LaFave lives, he said the health care system never got anywhere near being overwhelmed. Now, with the uptick in cases, the data he sees is showing the majority of new cases are people in their twenties who aren’t as likely to have serious medical complications.

“So we're not having a massive swing in deaths in Michigan. And the problem is, unless we can get a vaccine or herd immunity, everyone is going to get COVID-19. That's how these novel-type viruses work,” LaFave told the UP Gazette. “The only thing we can do is protect the most vulnerable, and that's exactly what governor Whitmer didn't do.”

Instead, she sent coronavirus patients to nursing homes. “She paid $5,000 as a blood bribe to put COVID-positive patients next to the most vulnerable people in our state,” LaFave told the UP Gazette.

That decision probably cost her the chance to be Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate, he said. LaFave actually wishes Biden would choose her since he believes that would assure the country of four more years with Donald Trump as president.

Whitmer's other pandemic decisions damaged the economy also, he said. Michigan was the most locked-down state in the nation. People couldn’t buy seeds to plant food in their gardens, as she shut down nurseries, gardening centers and retail stores like Home Depot.

“She did literally everything she could to destroy the economy and nothing to protect the nursing home residents,” LaFave told the UP Gazette.

LaFave also said Whitmer must think that ruining the economy will help the Democrats. “And I don't think she's wrong. I think she's actually right on that,” LaFave told the UP Gazette.

Her attempts to follow through on a campaign promise to fix the state’s roads accomplished nothing, he said. Her proposal to the Michigan Legislature to pass a 5-cent-per-gallon gas tax failed. Then she borrowed $3.5 billion in bonds for roads during a budget crisis and a global pandemic. The funds can only be used on state highways, which make up only 8% of the state’s roads.

In 1945, during World War II, the Legislature gave the governor unlimited, unchecked power, LaFave explained.

“And there is nothing the Legislature can do without the aid of legislative Democrats to take away basically what is an emperorship -- short of a supermajority,” LaFave told the UP Gazette. All the Legislature can do, he said, is hope Democrats care more about the people dying in nursing homes than their party loyalty.