Rare is the instance where you see blue-on-blue crime on the Legacy Media’s Sunday shows, but Politico’s Jonathan Martin gives us that rare outlier, in reaction to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s face-shielding hijinks at The White House. In so doing, Martin hearkened back to another classic own-goal.
Watch as J-Mart uses historical precedent to cook Whitmer, citing then-Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis’ ill-fated tank run during the 1988 presidential campaign:
"This is Dukakis in the tank for the 21st Century": J-Mart rakes MIGOV Gretchen Whitmer over her ill-fated Oval Office photo pic.twitter.com/mHFyNl0fIp
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) April 13, 2025
KRISTEN WELKER: Jonathan, was there this extraordinary, speaking of the Democrats moment…
JONATHAN MARTIN: Yes.
WELKER: …when Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan came to Washington, delivered a speech about tariffs, said she wished there could be a more careful approach, then went to The White House to meet with President Trump. Her team said she was surprised when she was kind of ushered into the Oval Office while he was signing EOs and then this happened, she literally for a moment covered her face. It's an extraordinary, striking moment that speaks to how complicated it is for Democrats right now to figure out. They want to energize their base and reach out to independents, particularly those who are potentially eyeing a run in 2028.
MARTIN: And in her case, trying to run a state for two more years that voted for Trump. But look. That picture’s instantly iconic. This is Dukakis in the tank for the 21st century, the difference being Dukakis could blame his staff. She has nobody to blame but herself. I think it was maladroit on two levels. First of all, the macropolitics of it, her assumption to a: give the speech she gave talking about working with Trump and then to go to The White House, her party right now views Trump as akin to Erdogan or Orban, foreign autocrats. You don't cut deals with somebody who’s trying to consolidate power and erode American institutions. That, number one is- I thought, her faulty assumption. Then there’s the micro, and why is she in The White House at all and let herself be brought into the Oval Office? That’s not her staff. That’s her own instincts and her own politics culminating in holding up that file folder. You just don’t do that. That’s an error for the ages.
Admittedly, some of our readers may be unaware of the “Dukakis in the tank” reference. J-Mart was talking about the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, Gov. Dukakis, taking a joyride in a tank in order to look like someone who could be Commander-in-Chief.
Recall that his opponent, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, served as a Navy pilot during World War II and survived being shot down over the Pacific. As our friend Scott Whitlock noted at the time, ABC was so enraged by the subsequent Bush campaign ad that they fact-checked it on World News Tonight!
It wasn’t that long ago that Whitmer’s name would often pop up at or near the top of the list when discussing Democrat electeds with a shot either in the post-Biden snap primary or in 2028. In that sense, the photo of Whitmer shielding herself with folders the way a toddler might do with a blanky is a remarkable own goal. Even more remarkable: Legacy Media types burying her on-air for it.
