Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) issued a statement on Saturday apologizing for a video that appeared to mock the Catholic faith.
In the statement, she said she “would never do something to denigrate someone’s faith,” adding that the video, which touches on the CHIPS Act, “has been construed as something it was never intended to be.”
“Over 25 years in public service, I would never do something to denigrate someone’s faith. I’ve used my platform to stand up for people’s right to hold and practice their personal religious beliefs. My team has spoken to the Michigan Catholic Conference. What was supposed to be a video about the importance of the CHIPS Act to Michigan jobs, has been construed as something it was never intended to be, and I apologize for that,” Whitmer said.
In the video posted by social media influencer and former MSNBC columnist Liz Plank on Friday, Whitmer, donning a camouflage Harris-Walz campaign hat, is seen feeding a Dorito to a kneeling Plank.
The video is captioned: “If he won’t, Gretchen Whitmer will. Chips aren’t just delicious, the CHIPS Act is a game-changer for U.S. tech and manufacturing, boosting domestic production of semiconductors to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers. Donald Trump would put that at risk.”
The video led to outrage from various Catholic groups who saw it as mocking the Holy Communion, where bread and wine are given to represent the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
In a post on X, the right-leaning Catholic advocacy group CatholicVote questioned how the video could “be interpreted other than mockery of Catholics and the sacrament of Holy Communion,” and said it is “the latest example of the gross anti-Catholic bigotry festering inside the Democratic Party.”
The group later called for an apology from Whitmer.
“Any slight mockery of another faith would be met with outrage, and an immediate apology would be issued,” the group said. “Why hasn’t she done that yet?”
Another group, the Catholic League, called the video “anti-Catholic bigotry.”
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“What Whitmer did was to deride Holy Communion,” Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said in a statement. “There is no wiggle room for her to deny the obvious. … What Whitmer did is political suicide.”
Whitmer was on an episode of Chip Chat called “Gretchen Whitmer Wants To Meet Her Kidnappers” with Plank on her YouTube channel. At the beginning of the episode, Plank jokingly asked Whitmer whether she wants a “post-birth abortion” since her daughters leave their cups lying around, to which Whitmer laughed, saying, “There is no such thing.”
