Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is declining to back state Attorney General Dana Nessel, a fellow Democrat, who has been attacked by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) over Nessel’s decision to charge anti-Israel campus demonstrators at the University of Michigan for assaulting police and engaging in ethnic intimidation, among other alleged crimes.

Tlaib has also suggested that Nessel is only charging the protesters because she’s Jewish. Nessel has publicly decried the congresswoman’s characterization as antisemitic and wrong.

Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether Whitmer agrees with Tlaib’s argument that Nessel is only charging the protesters because she’s Jewish, the Michigan governor declined to weigh in.

“I’m not going to get in the middle of this argument that they’re having,” Whitmer said on CNN’s “State of the Union” show Sunday morning.  

“I can just say this: You know, we do want to make sure that students are safe on our campuses, and we recognize that every person has the right to make their statement about how they feel about an issue, a right to speak out. And I’m going to use every lever of mine to ensure that both are true.”

“I’m not going to get in the middle of this argument that they’re having,” @GovWhitmer said on @CNNSOTU show Sunday morning with @jaketapper.

“I can just say this: You know, we do want to make sure that students are safe on our campuses, and we recognize that every person has… pic.twitter.com/2uCGD9hBPq

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) September 22, 2024

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt sharply criticized Whitmer for not speaking up more aggressively against antisemitism. “Governor Whitmer, when your attorney general prosecutes people for violating the law, harassing Jews, and attacking police officers, it’s in the interest of public safety. When a congresswoman accuses the attorney general of prosecuting protestors simply because she’s Jewish, it’s bias,” Greenblatt said on X.

“Saying you want to “make sure that students are safe on our campuses” is just words if you are not willing to use your bully pulpit to speak out unequivocally on antisemitism and support holding people accountable for violating the law when it affects Jews.”

Whitmer spokesperson Stacey LaRouche later issued a follow-up statement offering a clearer defense of Nessel, without specifically defending the Michigan attorney general’s prosecution of the anti-Israel protesters. The statement did not mention Tlaib.

“Governor Whitmer has been very clear in denouncing all anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, racist, and sexist language targeted toward communities in our state. The hateful rhetoric and racist tropes that have been lobbed at people, simply for who they are and what faith they practice, is unacceptable,” LaRouche said in a statement. “Attorney General Nessel has spent her career defending the rights of Michiganders to live freely and safely in our state. Her office has centered impartiality and fairness in every decision to uphold the rule of law equally.”

Earlier this month, Nessel charged nine anti-Israel demonstrators — and two counterprotesters — involved in incidents at the University of Michigan relating to the school’s anti-Israel protest encampment.

Nessel’s office charged seven demonstrators with assaulting or resisting police, a felony punishable by up to two years in prison. Two were charged with misdemeanor trespassing, carrying a maximum penalty of 30 days in prison. A university alumnus is also charged with disturbing the peace and attempted ethnic intimidation.

Nessel said she pursued felony charges against those who “physically placed their hands or bodies against police” or “physically obstructed an arrest.”

Tlaib publicly slammed Nessel for her decision to charge the demonstrators, telling the Detroit Metro Times: “It seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.”

Tlaib went on: “This is a move that’s going to set a precedent, and it’s unfortunate that a Democrat made that move. You would expect that from a Republican, but not a Democrat, and it’s really unfortunate.”

Nessel responded sharply to Tlaib on Friday, insinuating that the congresswoman has been making antisemitic comments that the attorney general can’t perform her job fairly. Her comments came in a tweet criticizing a Detroit News cartoon portraying Tlaib next to an exploding pager, which most Michigan Democrats have been publicly condemning. 

But Nessel, in her public comments, took the opportunity to both speak out against both the cartoon and Tlaib’s behavior, which she tagged as antisemitic. 

Nessel first spoke out against Tlaib last November, after the congresswoman defended protesters’ use of the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as an aspirational call for freedom. 

At the time, Nessel wrote to Tlaib on X: “I have supported and defended you countless times, even when you have said the indefensible, because I believed you to be a good person whose heart was in the right place. But this is so hurtful to so many. Please retract this cruel and hateful remark.”

Tlaib didn’t respond.

This story was updated at 2 p.m. on Sept. 22 to include comments from Gov. Whitmer’s office and the Anti-Defamation League.