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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Sunday that although President Donald Trump incites violence against public servants and inspires domestic terrorism, she would rather focus on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic than his incendiary rhetoric. “Every moment that we are not focused on the fact that there are 220,000 Americans who died from this virus is good for him,” Whitmer, a Democrat, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview. (Forgey, 10/18)

During his rally in Muskegon, Mich., on Saturday, Trump blamed Whitmer for imposing what he sees as too severe restrictions on the state during the coronavirus pandemic. That led to a chorus of "lock her up!" chants. And instead of condemning the chants, Trump seemed to egg on his supporters, smiling and saying, "You got to get your governor to open up your state," and "Lock them all up." (Sprunt, 10/18)

Lara Trump, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, on Sunday defended her father-in-law’s suggestion that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer should be imprisoned alongside his other political rivals. In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Lara Trump insisted the president was merely “having fun at a Trump rally” when he criticized Whitmer, a Democrat, at a campaign event this weekend. (Forgey, 10/18)

Whitmer implored the Republican president and other officials on Sunday to "bring the heat down" and accused Trump of "inspiring and incentivizing and inciting this kind of domestic terrorism. "Whitmer, a national campaign co-chair for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, made the comments with an "8645" emblem on a table beside her visible in the camera frame, an apparent anti-Trump message referring to "86ing," or getting rid of, the 45th president. The presence of the decal prompted a backlash from Trump's campaign, which argued: "86 can be shorthand for killing someone." (LeBlanc, 10/18)