Over the weekend, Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock sent a Twitter message from a conservative confab in Grand Rapids suggesting that Michigan should secede from the United States and in turn dump Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The posted tweet, inspired by Britain’s “Brexit” pullout from the European Union, said: “Maybe it’s time for a #MIexit. America’s tried it once before! Time to end our governor’s tyrannical rule.”
Of course, Maddock failed to mention that the “once before” she cited — the Civil War — saw Michigan fight on the side of the union, not the secessionists.
The party chair was attending a Friday night event celebrating Nigel Farage (the two are pictured above), a former member of the British parliament who was a leading proponent of Brexit. Farage made a stop at the DeltaPlex conference center to promote his “America’s Comeback Tour 2021,” an attempt to energize conservatives as “America stands facing her own crisis of leadership.”
For more than two decades, Farage has served as Britain’s most controversial far-right politician and activist, often associating with conspiracy theories, Islamophobia and xenophobia.
Maddock, a Milford resident, was a 2020 leader of a national group, Women for Trump, who arranged busloads of Michigan Republicans to travel to Washington on Jan. 6 for the pro-Trump rally that led to the Capitol insurrection. She has served as GOP co-chair since February.
Matt Maddock
Maddock and her husband, state Rep. Matt Maddock, have been outspoken advocates of the “Stop the Steal” movement which falsely claims that Trump won the November election.
While Meshawn’s reference to a tyrannical governor refers to Whitmer’s public health rules during the Covid-19 pandemic, Matt has gained national attention in recent days from critics who say he is promoting his own form of tyranny.
The representative proposed a bill that would require journalists and researchers who work as fact-checkers to register with the state and insure themselves with a $1 million bond in the event they are sued by a member of the public. Any fact-checker who did not register with the state could face a $1,000 fine per day.
Maddock has been singled out by fact-checkers for falsely claiming widespread voter fraud in Michigan and for insisting that Covid was no more dangerous than the flu.
In a comment to The Washington Post, Maddock said he’s trying to protect “our First Amendment right to be wrong if we want to.”
nigel farrage is far right?
wait a minute, the whole 10 years before brexit was even put to a vote he was considered a libertarian or a centrist.
what kind of left wing apologist are you mister centrist?