‘Such immaturity’: What Michigan leaders are saying after GOP senator’s Capitol ‘hoax’ comment
Updated Feb 11, 2021;
Posted Feb 11, 2021
Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey speaks during a press conference on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2020 in Lansing. Nicole Hester/Mlive.com
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In a secretly-recorded video, the GOP’s top Michigan state senator called the Capitol insurrection a “hoax,” said he’s “spanked” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on the budget and has contemplated inviting Whitmer “to a fistfight on the Capitol lawn.”
Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, met personally with the Hillsdale County Republican Party leaders, but even that wasn’t enough to save him from being censured by the group for straying from “conservative values.”
Mike Shirkey previously came under fire for attending a rally with extremists, weeks after armed men entered the Statehouse to protest Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's coronavirus restrictions. Some were later charged in a plot to kidnap the governor.
(Photo courtesy of the Michigan Executive Office of the Governor)
LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) Wednesday, Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II criticized Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) for his recent comments regarding the governor and the recent siege on the U.S. Capitol.
According to Gilchrist, over the past year, Shirkey has developed a pattern of using sexist and inappropriate language in reference to the governor and her administration.
In April, Shirkey shared a stage with members of a violent militia group that later plotted to kidnap the Governor, went on to meet privately in his Capitol office with violent militia groups about their efforts to rail against Michiganâs government and recently claimed the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last month was a âhoax.â