Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘She Was So Bad’: Mark Halperin And Sean Spicer Team Up To Cast Doubt On Gretchen Whitmer’s Presidential Prospects

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Political analyst Mark Halperin and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer cast doubt Thursday on Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 2028 presidential prospects after her Wednesday public appearances.

Whitmer gave a “Build, America, Build” speech in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday before meeting with President Donald Trump in the White House. Halperin and Spicer, on “The Morning Meeting,” suggested the events exposed her lack of readiness for a presidential campaign.

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“The 2028 Democratic field is overrated. Running for president and winning the nomination and winning the general election takes major league talent, and these folks — I’m going to single one of them out, but I’m saying it’s true of almost all of them,” Halperin said. “You can look at a governor from 2,000 miles away and say, ‘Well, they look amazing. They’d be a great candidate.’ I’m telling you, these folks have not had the level of experience that some have.”

“Here’s Gretchen Whitmer. She went to the White House yesterday. It’s still a little unclear what she was doing there, but she ended up in an Oval Office photo op,” he continued. “And then her press person had to kind of apologize and say he wasn’t endorsing for the stuff that was going on in the White House. So, look, just look at her. Look how uncomfortable she appears to my eyes.”

Halperin played footage of Whitmer standing stiffly and nodding as Trump spoke.

“So, my point is, I don’t care what the facts are. Ridiculous staff work, and that is just one example from one prospective candidate of how challenged they will be, themselves and their teams,” he said. “And this is true even of the governor of Pennsylvania, especially true of him. The gap between the chatter about how strong they’ll be and how they’ll actually be, I think, is immense.”

Former Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine disputed Halperin’s characterization of the significance of Whitmer’s appearance at the photo op, with Spicer siding with Turrentine. However, Spicer agreed with Halperin that Whitmer “looked awkward” at the photo op and criticized her speech delivery.

“Here’s my tell, though, that was interesting. We talked about this yesterday. She had released excerpts of her speech, which I thought was really well done. Then she delivered it, and it sucked, and she was so bad … she read it. It looked like she wasn’t familiar with the material,” Spicer said. “It was awkward pauses. She did not look like she had command of issue. She did not look like she had presence. And that, to me, was more of an issue than anything else.”

“This is a reminder: so you can give a good speech and be a bad candidate. You can write a good speech and not deliver it well,” he added. “I mean, they all have to come together at once to be a successful candidate. And to me, this is, you know, to quote Shark Tank, ‘For those reasons, I’m out.'”

In a poorly read speech today, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lamented the Chinese government funding companies to compete with America.

Whitmer has funded a Chinese company with $715 million in taxpayer dollars (to effectively compete with American companies). pic.twitter.com/ALTAiLp5Sd

— The Midwesterner (@Th_Midwesterner) April 9, 2025

Whitmer is a potential Democratic presidential nominee in 2028.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, former Obama White House chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Democratic governors Gavin Newsom of California, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Wes Moore of Maryland are also thought to be potentially considering 2028 runs.

Trump praised Whitmer as “a very good person” during the Oval Office meeting, committing to collaborate with her on combating Asian Carp in the Great Lakes, Bridge Michigan reported.