Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist has been in office for over three years, making history as Michigan’s first African-American lieutenant governor.
The Democratic father of three, who contracted COVID-19 earlier this month after his daughter tested positive, posted a Twitter video Thursday afternoon in which he was masked up and announced that he was back to doing events: “Hey Michigan! I’m ready to get back out into our communities again and continue speaking with Michiganders on the issues that matter to them most.”
On Thursday evening, CNN posted a blockbuster story that former President Donald Trump’s team directed the 2020 fake GOP elector scheme in Michigan and six other states to help overturn the Electoral College results and install him for another term, even though President Joe Biden won the election.
The story also featured leaked audio from Michigan GOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock, telling a right-wing group, Stand Up Michigan, co-founded by GOP gubernatorial candidate Gerald Soldano: “We fought to seat the electors. The Trump campaign asked us to do that. I’m under a lot of scrutiny for that today.”
After CNN’s story broke, Maddock took to Twitter. But the state GOP co-chair, who is married to state Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford), did not address the false elector machinations.
Instead, she retweeted Gilchrist’s video from earlier that day and remarked, “Show this video to a babies and watch them cry. Scary masked man should #StayHome.”
Meshawn Maddock was one of the 16 false GOP electors who signed a document in December 2020 claiming Trump won all of Michigan’s electoral votes. She also was part of a group of Republicans who tried to enter the Michigan Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, while the Electoral College was meeting.
In reality, Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes and thus all 16 of the state’s electoral votes.
She was elected in 2021 co-chair of the state Republican Party along with Ron Weiser, a former ambassador and current University of Michigan regent.
That was after Maddock helped organize buses to pro-Trump protests in Washington, D.C., as Congress was meeting to certify Electoral College votes. She spoke at a Jan. 5, 2021, rally in D.C. The day after, Trump incited a mob of his supporters and encouraged them to storm the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the electoral votes for Biden’s 2020 presidential win. Five people died, hundreds of law enforcement officers were injured and four later died by suicide.
Rodericka Applewhaite, a spokesperson for the Michigan Democratic Party, on Saturday blasted Maddock’s tweet: “.@MIGOP @CoChairMeshawn Maddock showing exactly what we’re up against. Can anyone tell me what’s scary here?”
Jeff Timmer is a former Michigan GOP executive director who left the party during the Trump era and is now a consultant to Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel’s campaign.
“Will a single Republican display honor and denounce the racism of this vile human?” Timmer tweeted on Saturday. “Do they agree with her? Or are they just chickenshits?”
Originally published January 23, 2022 on Michigan Advance. It is shared here with permission.
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