Fact Check: Did Gretchen Whitmer withdraw her support for Rashida Tlaib over foreign donations?

LANSING, MICHIGAN: A claim has been circulating on social media platforms that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has withdrawn her endorsement of Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib over alleged foreign donations from pro-Palestine groups. The claim has sparked criticism and speculation, prompting verification.

Claim: Gretchen Whitmer withdrew her endorsement for Rashida Tlaib

According to a viral post on X (formerly Twitter), Whitmer said she has "no choice" but to withdraw her endorsement for Tlaib after the congresswoman was allegedly caught red-handed taking foreign donations from pro-Palestine groups.

“It’s unfortunate that Congresswoman Tlaib couldn’t play by the rules,” Whitmer’s Press Secretary, Josephine Barron, allegedly said. “It will most likely cost her the election and earn her a federal indictment.” 

The post ends by stating that Tlaib’s office denied any wrongdoing. 

The claim has spread on multiple social media platforms, including Facebook and Bluesky, with people appearing to believe the claim to be true.

Meanwhile, a few others questioned its authenticity and called for verification, prompting a fact-check.

Fact Check: The claim originated from a parody account

The claim, however, is false, as no publicly available evidence proves that Whitmer withdrew her endorsement of Tlaib over foreign donations from pro-Palestine groups.

There are no official statements, announcements, or social media posts from the Michigan governor or from her office that support the claim. There are also no statements from Whitmer’s press secretary about the alleged development.

Moreover, the search also revealed that the claim originated from a popular Facebook parody account called "America’s Last Line Of Defense," which describes itself in the bio as "Nothing on this page is real."

Rashida Tlaib's support for Palestine

Tlaib has often received backlash for her vocal support of the Palestinian cause and for her stance against Israel. She was born in Detroit to a Palestinian immigrant family and later became the first member of Palestinian descent to be elected to Congress in 2018.

“They thought they could kill us, imprison us, violently uproot us from our olive tree farms, starve our children to death, and we would disappear. Well, guess what? Now we’re in Congress, and we’re in every corner of the United States,” she said at a pro-Palestine rally last year. 

“Y’all, they just don’t get it. They just don’t get it! They will never truly comprehend, even after seven decades, that we aren’t going anywhere. We are just getting started. I want to say to all of them, every genocide enabler: look at this room, we ain’t going anywhere," she added.