{"id":438413,"date":"2021-04-21T11:35:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=438413"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:36:02","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:36:02","slug":"whitmer-defends-trip-to-florida-despite-travel-warning-i-wasnt-partying-in-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/whitmer-defends-trip-to-florida-despite-travel-warning-i-wasnt-partying-in-miami\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitmer Defends Trip To Florida Despite Travel Warning: \u2018I Wasn\u2019t Partying In Miami!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhitmer-defends-trip-to-florida-despite-travel-warning-i-wasnt-partying-in-miami%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=438413&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-3077.jpeg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer fired back at critics who are calling her hypocritical for traveling to Florida to visit her ailing father while instructing Michigan residents to avoid travel, particularly to the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the Washington Post\u2019s podcast, she called the response \u201csaddening,\u201d and blasted reports that she\u2019d spent time in Florida, although she confirmed that she did, indeed, leave Michigan, the state that is currently the epicenter of the nation\u2019s COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is saddening,\u201d Whitmer said. \u201cIt is a two-day trip. I wasn\u2019t partying in Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She then noted that her trip was a \u201ccheck-in\u201d on her ailing parent, again claiming that, \u201cit was certainly not spring break.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for the governor reiterated Whitmer\u2019s excuse to press.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe governor did not go on spring break, and she has not left the state in over a month,\u201d the spokesperson told media in an emailed statement. \u201cIn the past six months, she has left the state three times, once for the inauguration, once to assist her elderly father who is battling chronic illness, and once to visit Michigan\u2019s National Guard troops.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll trips were very brief, two full days or less, closely followed public health guidelines and were made when Michigan\u2019s daily positivity rate was in the low single digits,\u201d the spokesperson added, noting that Michigan taxpayers did not pay for\u00a0 Whitmer\u2019s travel.<\/p>\n<p>The governor\u2019s office declined to provide any further details about Whitmer\u2019s trip, including dates, because of \u201congoing security concerns.\u201d The office did, however, confirm that Whitner\u2019s parent has been fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.<\/p>\n<p>But while Whitmer seems to believe that the purpose of her trip is relevant, her instructions to Michigan residents do not seem to vary based on whether Michigan residents visiting Florida are there to check in on a parent or whether they plan on sipping drinks on South Beach.<\/p>\n<p>Whitmer previously urged Michigan residents who visited Florida \u201cto work from home for a week or have their children learn remotely for a week,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/whitmer-criticism-florida-trip-partying-miami\">according to Fox News<\/a>, and earlier in April, the <a href=\"https:\/\/nptelegraph.com\/news\/national\/govt-and-politics\/whitmer-concerned-about-florida-travel-urges-precautions\/article_40ae6ad0-961d-5b4a-94ec-34a99b297ba0.html\">Associated Press noted<\/a>, Whitmer \u2018recommended that people get tested after in-state, out-of-state or international travel. Michigan will provide about three-dozen pop-up testing sites to make it easier for travelers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sunday, on Meet the Press, Whitmer blamed Florida for exacerbating Michigan\u2019s pandemic, even though Florida is not suffering from the same spike in numbers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMichigan and Florida are not next to each other,\u201d Whitmer told \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d \u201cBut this is the time of the year that snowbirds come home from Florida, where people are going on spring break, and all of these things can contribute to spread. That\u2019s why we\u2019re imploring people to take this seriously, mask up, get tested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not clear whether Whitmer followed that advice.<\/p>\n<p>Michigan\u2019s Republican House Appropriations Chairman, Thomas Albert, pointed out the double standard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI understand the desire to visit an ill relative, and I hope for good health for the governor\u2019s family\u00a0\u2014 but I have heard countless stories of heartbroken Michiganders who wanted to visit sick family members during this pandemic and haven\u2019t been able to do so,\u201d Albert said. \u201cI don\u2019t understand how the governor thinks it\u2019s OK for her and members of her administration to travel out-of-state\u00a0while issuing recommendations to the rest of us that we stay home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Detroit News reported, earlier this week, that Whitmer is actually the third Michigan public health official to defy the state\u2019s travel advice and, in at least one case, that of Michigan\u2019s Health and Human Services director, \u201cspring break\u201d was involved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cElizabeth Hertel, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, was in Alabama earlier in April on a family trip as her home state continued to battle a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2021\/04\/19\/whitmer-traveled-florida-visit-her-father-spokesman-says\/7294610002\/\">the outlet reported<\/a>. \u201cThe trip came days after Whitmer\u2019s administration levied public warnings about out-of-state travel. On April 2, Hertel was quoted in a press release that encouraged \u2018spring break travelers\u2019 to get tested for the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michigan\u2019s Chief Operating Officer Tricia Foster, also \u201cposted photos of herself traveling with her family to Florida, where they vacationed in Siesta Key south of Tampa,\u201d in early April. Whitmer\u2019s office responded to that criticism by calling Breitbart, which first reported that story, a \u201cwhite nationalist website.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer fired back at critics who are calling her hypocritical for traveling to Florida to visit her ailing father while instructing Michigan residents to avoid travel, particularly &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2276377,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-3077.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Whitmer Defends Trip To Florida Despite Travel Warning: \u2018I Wasn\u2019t Partying In Miami!\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-3077.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Whitmer Defends Trip To Florida Despite Travel Warning: \u2018I Wasn\u2019t Partying In Miami!\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2276377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}