DETROIT — Now that’s weird.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer raised eyebrows Thursday over a bizarre video in which she fed Doritos into the mouth of a liberal podcaster — in which some said was a stunt that imitated the Catholic sacrament of Holy Communion.
In the short clip, posted on podcaster Liz Plank’s Instagram account, the lefty influencer was seen on her knees opening her mouth for Whitmer to place Doritos on her tongue.
Plank was then seen eating it as the camera panned to reveal Whitmer, in a camouflage Harris-Walz hat.
The video is an apparent takeoff on a TikTok meme in which friends feed each other food and stare uncomfortably into the camera.
Plank, the face of an influencer group that calls itself “Hotties For Harris,” tried to shoe-horn the vid into a statement on industrial policy — specifically about the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which gave billions in funding to boost the semiconductor industry.
“If he won’t, Gretchen Whitmer will. Chips aren’t just delicious, the CHIPS Act is a game-changer for U.S. tech and manufacturing, boosting domestic production of semiconductors to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers! Donald Trump would put that at risk,” Plank captioned the Instagram video.
But most users couldn’t get past the sacrilegious overtones of the clip. It quickly set social media ablaze with puzzlement, intrigue and criticism.
“Many Catholics are going to see this as mocking the communion rail,” Tim Graham, executive editor of NewsBusters, stressed on X. “Except Catholics don’t make it look like sensual.””Let’s be clear what’s happening in this video,” Trump adviser Tim Murtaugh stressed on X. “Gov. Whitmer of Michigan is pretending to give communion to an leftist podcaster on her knees, using a Dorito as the Eucharist while wearing a Harris-Walz hat.”
“Do they want ZERO Catholic votes for Harris?”
Conservative pundit Liz Wheeler lamented:
“it’s wild that some Christians refuse to vote when Democrats obviously loathe you… because you’re Christian.”
Critics also pilloried Whitmer and Plank over the video’s cringyworthiness.
“Ya but JD Vance is ‘weird,’” Bill G. Schuette, a Republican first-term state rep, mocked on X, alluding to Democrats’ attempt to brand GOP vice presidential hopeful JD Vance as “weird.”
Michigan Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt said: “Michigan Democrats are embroiled in controversy for $175 million they gave to a company affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party — and apparently Governor Whitmer’s response is to demonstrate that she’s lost her mind.
“Or maybe she’s trying to make Kamala Harris appear somewhat normal in comparison.”
Nesbitt was referring to plans for the Gotion EV battery factory, which has become a flashpoint in the state’s extremely tight Senate race over Gotion’s ties to China.
“Gretchen Whitmer did the meme in the most unsettling way,” @oilfield_rando wrote on X alongside a meme showing one girl force-feeding another with a bottle of milk.
