Newly released emails reveal that Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office gave the “green light” for taxpayer funds to be given to Democrat groups as part of the state’s coronavirus “contact tracing” program.
“Whitmer’s office gave the ‘green light’ for a COVID-19 contact tracing ‘arrangement’ she denied knowledge of and canceled amid outcry over a contractor with Democratic ties,” Bridge Magazine, a local Michigan publication, reported. “Emails obtained through a public records request appear to show Michigan officials tried to avoid controversy by shifting work to apolitical subsidiaries of firms with known partisan leanings.”
DailyWire report: A senior adviser in the Michigan Department of the Health and Human Services, Andrea Taverna, said in an email to Michigan government officials: “We got the green light from EOG [the executive office of the governor] to move forward with a slightly different organizational arrangement of the contact tracing volunteer work. This would still be working with Mike Kolehouse, so work there isn’t lost – it’s just organized somewhat differently – see below.”
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In late April, The Washington Free Beacon reported that Whitmer had given control of the state’s contact tracing program to “one of the left’s biggest technology firms” and that the move was seen as potential way of her “using the coronavirus to strengthen the Democratic Party’s data operation.”
The Washington Post reported that the group that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars were going to go “would be managed in coordination with EveryAction, a firm that is closely linked to NGP VAN, a technology provider that boasts that it powers ‘nearly every major Democratic campaign in America.’”
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel highlighted an alleged Facebook post from a Democrat operative who also revived a contract from Whitmer’s administration that stated: “I hope [Trump] gets Coronavirus ASAP. Can someone do the country a favor and cough on that man.”
Whitmer struggled to respond and had to resort to reading prepared notes when pressed during a news conference in April about why she awarded the contracts to partisan left-wing groups.
“When it was brought to my attention, I told them to cancel it,” Whitmer claimed. “This was an unnecessary distraction. Leadership is about solving problems. The correct process was not followed.”
Whitmer refused to answer who was responsible for making the decision to use those companies.
Whitmer is currently facing calls from Michigan state lawmakers to be investigated over her decision to send coronavirus patients to nursing homes.
The Detroit Free Press reported that “thousands of nursing home residents across Michigan have fallen ill from the novel coronavirus and hundreds have died,” but the true extent of the devastation under Whitmer’s leadership is not known because “the state has yet to tally how many total nursing home residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since the crisis began.”
