Whitmer says she and her family get attacked every time Trump mentions her

Weeks after law enforcement said it foiled a domestic terrorist plan to kidnap and possibly kill her, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is doubling down for her calls for President Donald Trump to stop targeting her — saying that whenever he mentions her, she and her family see "a surge of vicious attacks."

Whitmer made the comments in an essay published in The Atlantic on Tuesday.

"Every time the president ramps up this violent rhetoric, every time he fires up Twitter to launch another broadside against me, my family and I see a surge of vicious attacks sent our way," Whitmer wrote. "This is no coincidence, and the president knows it. He is sowing division and putting leaders, especially women leaders, at risk. And all because he thinks it will help his reelection."

Whitmer blamed Trump and also Michigan's Republicans, who she accused of "fraternizing with those who stormed the Michigan capitol, long guns in hand." Armed protesters have been gathering at the Capitol Building to protest Whitmer's emergency powers, and just hours after the kidnapping plot was revealed, State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield, both Republicans, appeared at an anti-Whitmer rally in Lansing, where they continued to use heated rhetoric.

"This is no time to be weak in our commitment to freedom," Shirkey said to the crowd, according to Michigan Advance. "We need to be strong … and not be afraid of those who are taking our freedoms away from us."

Earlier this month, the Michigan Supreme Court struck down Whitmer's emergency powers. Coronavirus cases have continued to climb in Michigan in the ensuing weeks, breaking a record not seen since the beginning of April.

"From the White House all the way down to state and local governments, these leaders have shown a disdain for unity and have failed to rally fellow Americans against a common enemy: COVID-19," Whitmer wrote.

Trump has previously called Whitmer a "dictator." During a recent episode of 60 Minutes, Trump cut the interview short after CBS reporter Lesley Stahl asked him about his repeated attacks on Whitmer.

"You are very powerful, and the people who love you love you with passion, and if you go after somebody the way you've been going after her, they take it to heart and then there are plots and threats," Stahl said.

At a rally on Tuesday in Lansing, Trump once again mentioned Whitmer, causing the crowd to chant, "Lock her up."

"Your governor is a disaster," he said. "They have got to open up this state."

Trump's dangerous attacks on Whitmer aren't even true. Besides the fact that her emergency powers were struck down, the state hasn't been under a stay-at-home order for months.

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