With a single selfie, Mike Detmer shows he’s not fit to be a Congressman

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As you’ve no doubt seen and heard, several thousand people came to Lansing today to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-home order.

I’m not here to debate the specifics of her order or whether the protest was a good idea or a bad idea. There are plenty of debates raging on Facebook and Twitter right now about those topics, so if you’re in the mood to debate that, feel free to jump into one of those discussions.

Rather, I’m here to discuss the actions of Mike Detmer, a Howell resident who is an announced Republican candidate for the 8th Congressional District. Detmer showed by his actions today that he is not in any way fit to be a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

There’s every reason to believe that Detmer won’t make the ballot anyway. With less than a week to go before the April 21 filing deadline, Detmer is still online begging for signatures, so we’ll see if he even makes it.

I hope he doesn’t. He doesn’t deserve to be a candidate for Congress and he isn’t fit to serve in Congress. Based alone on what happened today, he isn’t fit to serve in any office. He did today the single most idiotic thing I’ve ever seen any political candidate do in Livingston County or anywhere else.

Here’s what happened:

This morning on his Facebook page, Detmer posted a selfie of himself with about a dozen people. The photo has since been taken off his Facebook page, but you see it here.

Mike Detmer, left, in the photo he posted on his Facebook page this morning. Photo from WHMI.

It’s important to remember this fact: Detmer himself took this photo, and Detmer himself posted it. He was obviously very proud of it.

Two things are very wrong with this photo:

  1. We’re in the middle of a pandemic, where everybody is supposed to be wearing masks and social distancing, and here’s a candidate for the UNITED STATES CONGRESS who is proudly posing for a photo with a whole bunch of people huddled around him, none of whom have been quarantining with him, and none of whom are wearing masks. The photo was not taken at the rally, by the way. It was taken this morning in Howell, as Detmer and his group were preparing to leave for the rally.
  2. At the back of the photo is a guy who’s wearing a “Proud Boys” mask and flashing a white-power hand sign. According to Wikipedia, the Proud Boys are a far-right neo-fascist organization that admits only men as members and promotes political violence. Mike Detmer took a photo with this guy and posted it on his Facebook page.

Well, WHMI got a hold of the story this afternoon and then some other media folks picked it up, and pretty soon, Mike Detmer found himself in the middle of a firestorm. 

After letting the story sit out there for a few hours, Detmer took to his Facebook page AGAIN tonight to offer up an explanation by way of a video he shot in his truck. Not an apology, mind you. He’s apologizing for nothing. He just wanted to explain what happened, and his explanation just makes it all worse.

Here, in his own words, is how Detmer explains the photo:

“I posted a selfie photo on my Facebook feed this morning. In Howell, there was a staging point where people were instructed to show up to be part of the caravan. It got a little chaotic. Most everybody there, though, was wearing masks and gloves. There was one brief moment when people where out of their cars because there was confusion about which way we were going to load onto Grand River. I took the opportunity to ask if they wanted to take a quick selfie. Masks came off, we took a quick shot.”

AND YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA, MIKE? Let’s all take our masks off and huddle together real quick for a selfie? And the only guy who WAS wearing a mask was the Proud Boys guy?

Is that how the coronavirus works, Mike? If you huddle together real quick and only take your masks off for a second, the virus won’t go from one person to another?

Ah, and then we have the white-power guy. Detmer’s explanation to that? He was photobombed. Again, in his own words:

“I have no idea who the guy is. I’ve never even heard of the organization they’re saying he belongs to. Trying to label me as a white supremacist is absolutely absurd.”

OK, I’m willing to grant you that you had no idea who that guy was and that he just popped into the photo. Fine. So why did you let that photo sit on your Facebook page for several hours until you took it down? Until WHMI called to ask you about it? You have a guy in your photo making a very well-known white-supremacist hand signal, and you leave that photo on your Facebook page? And then you don’t even apologize for it?

Based on his Facebook posts today, Mike Detmer was really happy that he went to Lansing today to protest the governor.

Sorry, Mike, but the only thing you did today was kill your campaign.

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18 Comments

  1. I give you a huge “Thank you!!!” Mr. Moorehouse for standing up for this county. As a life long resident of Livingston County. I get sad, tired and worn down working to change this image, while hearing from others that it doesn’t exist anymore. Sadly… It does exist… Less now than in the past…. yes….and that is NO excuse to claim ignorance. There’s a huge billboard sign in the background announcing who is there. Ignorance? Arrogance? Complacency? Callus disregard?? None of that matters in explaining a smiling selfie while in the presence of hate. I would love to hear Mr. Detmer take responsibility for his actions and publicly apologize for dragging this county/district through this disgrace Yet Again… Then drop out of the congressional race.

  2. No one seems to notice the Michigan proud boys sign on top of the van in the pic!hmmmm that’s even more prevalent than the mask!

  3. Wish you folks would have been as concerned about Saint Obama’s friendship and ties to Reverend Wright and Bill Ayers

  4. Detmer forfeited his right to run when he sent people door-to-door in Howell to gather signatures. How is that social distancing? If the census isn’t going door-to-door, why is it safe for his volunteers to be doing that?

    • Have you ever heard of the 1st amendment? I know, it’s an obscure little thing that libs can’t seem to grasp.

  5. If it was an opinion piece you should have stated that up front! We all make mistakes that should not be used by others to define our very character or attack it here as you did. Obviously you are taking lessons from the radical so called journalists who spin everything to their liking yet never admitting that most if what they print is fiction? Whether he makes it or not is not the point, it’s this same negative defamation that has become the norm from liberals, Dems, Progressives and globalists. I find it embarrassing and despicable to say the least. And I did support the rally. It was peaceful, respectful of Sparrow Hospitals need for access and got the point across. However, the governor/tyrant didn’t get it at all. So the fear mongers like she and her staff will continue their tactics as if the lockdown will make this disappear? Germs don’t go away else we wouldn’t have flu epidemics yearly. Let us get back to living! Common sense will prevail. Eventually we will all get this. More than 98% will be fine, a few will need care and some will not make it, but it will not go away permanently.

    • My family member could not leave Sparrow after his chemotherapy because these selfish people blocked access. He was forced to sit in the lobby, sick from the chemo and exposed to other people. Fact.

    • I will bet my stimulus check that he knows exactly who the ‘proud boys’ are…

    • I must have seen other pictures and news coverage. It did not look like people were respectful of the hospital and its patients at all. And people were not distancing or wearing masks or staying home. Doesn’t look like common sense prevailing to me.
      So just let people spread the virus? Hope the ones that don’t make it aren’t part of your family. What would you say then?

    • Ok, couple of things here sweetie. First and foremost the title alone should have been your clue that this is an opinion piece. The entire premise was stated in that single sentence.The rest of the piece was the justification.

      Radical Journalist? What site do you think you are on, Fox News? Journalists do not present opinions as facts. They simply state facts. You do not have to agree with them but that is the beauty of facts, your acceptance is not required not does it change them.

      Third, if you actually bothered to go out and seek facts instead of the fiction you are spewing, you would know that when she first announced the Stay-at-Home order, she specifically stated that she and other state governors, and there are 49 of them besides her just in case you missed that day in Elementary School Social Studies Class, from both parties. So this is not something she did unilaterally. Within days of her announcement other Governors, including some Republicans who had more intelligence than others,

      And where did you get your PhD or MD with emphasis on Virology in order to make you “98% will be fine” claim? Google University? Alex Jones University? Trump University? Certainly not a real one.

      And side note, the Sparrow Hospital staff does not share your view that the “protest” was “respectful”. You know what I call intentionally blocking a medical facility to make a political point? An act of Terrorism.

    • Well YOU obviously were not affected in Sparrow as some people were. Your despicable diatribe tells things just as they are with you and your ilk. Narrow-minded, selfish and self-serving.

  6. Thank you, Buddy, for this opinion piece. You said it well! I am so appalled at this disgusting behavior of what happened in Lansing and, obviously, in those “staging” areas. Your article and that picture needs to make the circuit so he crawls back under whatever rock he came from. Thank you, Buddy.

  7. I believe he said they stopped on Grand River as they weren’t sure how to get to Lansing ??. Really, you want to run for congress and you dont know when driving Wezt o Grand River how to get to Lansing ??? ” Michigan geography for $200 please Alex”

  8. Buddy,
    This is a good story even though it is highly opinionated. The photo speaks for itself and I am glad you brought it to my attention. I say this as someone who rarely agrees with your opinions. Here is my opinion. Continue to report factual truth over opinion. I don’t care if it is left or right as long as it’s not spin. Along those lines, endorse Slotkin, as someone who brings truth to our district. I realize she is a democrat, but you cannot argue that she does a great job supporting the interests of our district.

    • Thanks, Sean. Yes, it’s highly opinionated. It’s an opinion piece.

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