Michigan’s top elected Republican, Mike Shirkey, majority leader in the State Senate, said on Wednesday that he defended previous statements in which he called the attack on the United States Capitol a “farce” and indicated that he could challenge Governor Gretchen Whitmer for a fight.
Shirkey was heard speaking into an open microphone at the Michigan Capitol on Wednesday, in what he apparently thought was a private conversation. “Frankly, I don’t withdraw any of the points I was trying to make,” he said, a reference to recent comments about the Capitol siege, which is the focus of former President Donald J. Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate.
At a restaurant last week, Shirkey told a group of Republican officials, “That was not Trump’s people,” referring to the crowd that broke into the Capitol on January 6. “This was a scam from day one,” he added. “It was all staged.”
A lunch video was uploaded to YouTube. Shirkey also made offensive comments that day about Whitmer, a Democrat, saying he and his fellow Republican lawmakers “beat her up hard” in the legislature. “I thought about inviting you to a fight on the Capitol lawn,” he added.
Whitmer has repeatedly been the target of sexist insults by Trump and unfounded charges of fraud in the Michigan elections. Six men with extremist ties were accused of plotting to kidnap her.
Shirkey, whom Trump pushed to reverse Michigan election results after President Biden won the state, straddled the line between showing loyalty to Trump’s fervent supporters and not attacking democracy. His comments over lunch were made to officials of the Hillsdale County Republican Party the day before he was censored for not getting up hard enough for Whitmer.
He apologized when the recording went public.
But on Wednesday, Shirkey’s comments on the microphone cast doubt on his apology. It was recorded talking to Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II, a Democrat, again questioning who had instigated the January 6 riot. Of the more than 175 protesters arrested, many showed strong support for Trump on social media and at least 21 had ties to far-right militant groups.
“The cause assignment was planned months, weeks and months in advance by someone who … unfortunately is being blamed for it,” said Shirkey, according to The Detroit Free Press. He added that the FBI has yet to determine “who was behind this”.
“Some Trump people got involved with the mob and did things they shouldn’t have done,” he said.