Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Details Unexpected Connection Between Beer, SNL and Attempted Kidnapping in Memoir

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks at the SelectUSA Investment Summit, May 4, 2023, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

In the tightly detailed 176 pages of her recently released memoir “True Gretch: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything In Between,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer mused candidly on her childhood, political ambitions and favorite songs (Taylor Swift’s “The Man” and Pearl Jam’s “The Fixer” each merited a mention). Taking a moment to reflect on a smaller anecdote that underlined a major news story, Whitmer shed light on a boozy interaction with “Saturday Night Live” star Cecily Strong that intersected with an infamous kidnapping plot targeting the governor.

The story harkens back to April 2020, when demonstrators descended upon the Michigan capitol in protest of Whitmer’s COVID-19-era stay-at-home orders. The incident — which eventually escalated to feature Confederate flags, nooses and alleged threats of a beheading — drew national attention, and by extension, the inevitable SNL sketch.

Donning an over-inflected Michigan accent and black parka jacket, Cecily Strong played up Whitmer’s defiant persona while sipping a bottle of Labatt’s Beer. At one point, she threw up a middle finger to the haters. Toward the end of the video, the comedian set down her bottle to react to a commotion off-camera; “Oh dang it, they’re throwing dog crap at my door. Knock it off! I’ll throw it back. I did it last time, too, you know I will!”

Whitmer writes that she was flattered by the impersonation, though she took issue with a small detail:

“I loved that she was able to make something funny out of such a dark time. There was only one problem. Labatt’s? Don’t get me wrong, I love Canadians, and they make great beer. But in Michigan, we drink Michigan beer,” Whitmer wrote.

Playfully correcting the error, Whitmer got in touch with Larry Bell, the founder of the oldest craft brewery in the state. Within days, Strong received a care package brimming with locally made beers, shirts and assorted swag courtesy of Bell’s Brewery; the SNL star posted the haul on Instagram, thanking the governor alongside the writers of the sketch.

 

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Context, however, is key, and in her memoir, the Michigan governor quickly placed Strong’s sketch within the serious backdrop of what occurred in the following weeks.

“It was played for laughs, but protestors really had begun gathering outside my door,” Whitmer recalls. “And my family and I — not to mention my state police detail — would have preferred that they’d only been armed with dog crap.”

Four days after the SNL sketch aired, armed protestors demanding an end to the stay-at-home orders squared off with state police inside the Michigan Capitol. Senator Dayna Polehanki alleged that some of her colleagues wore bulletproof vests in fear of escalating violence.

Around the same time, Whitmer writes, a right-wing militia known as the Wolverine Watchmen began hatching a plan that would’ve seen Whitmer kidnapped and possibly killed. When the FBI arrested 14 members of the group in October, four had reportedly bought explosives and tactical gear in preparation for an attack on Whitmer’s vacation home; at least two militia members were in attendance at the Michigan Capitol rally.

The plot, uncovered by Iraq War veteran and FBI informant Dan Chappel, rechristened the preceding rallies with a life-or-death seriousness that has since haunted Whitmer’s well-being in her home state.

“When fourteen men were arrested, this would be referred to as a ‘kidnapping plot.’ But the reality is, some of the men discussed killing me. They weren’t going to keep me tied up in a basement somewhere. They weren’t going to ransom me. It was an apparent assissination plan,” Whitmer writes.

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