Gretchen Whitmer's husband, Marc Mallory, retired early from dentistry due to threats

LANSING − Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says her husband retired from his dental practice about eight years earlier than planned, significantly impairing his retirement plans, because of threats arising from her job during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unlike her, First Gentleman Dr. Marc Mallory "didn't have all the state police with him all the time and he was worried about his patients and his staff," Whitmer said in an interview with Democratic strategist David Axelrod, for his podcast, "The Axe Files."

Whitmer also said during the nearly hourlong interview that:

• Former Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, went "kind of full QAnon" at the end of his term, in an apparent reference to his controversial Senate farewell speech.

• She counts among her likely mistakes her 2019 proposal for a 45-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase and said that if she was running the Republican campaign for governor, their entire campaign should have been centered on that pledge.

Mallory, who is now 60, announced his retirement in December 2020 and made no mention of concerns about threats then or in subsequent public statements.

"I am pleased to announce that after 35 years in dentistry, I am retiring," Mallory said in a letter to patients at the time.

But Whitmer, who on Sunday was inaugurated for a second four-year term, told Axelrod her husband made "a huge sacrifice," though not one he holds against her.

"He was going to work about seven, eight more years, and he started getting threats at his office," she said. Those would have been "his best earning years," and his decision to turn over his practice to another dentist adversely affected his retirement planning, she said.

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"He doesn't complain about it," but it shows how "the threats that people are so cavalier in making" take a toll, she said.

Mallory made headlines early in the pandemic, in May 2020, when he asked a boat contractor whether his status as Michigan's "First Gentleman" would help him get his boat in the water ahead of the Memorial Day weekend. At the time, Whitmer said the comment, which sparked outrage, was Mallory's poor attempt at humor.

Whitmer said she thinks former President Donald Trump, who repeatedly attacked and criticized her through social media during the pandemic, had a lot to do with fomenting the environment that led to threats against her and her family and to the kidnapping plot targeting her, in which the two ringleaders recently received federal prison sentences of 16 years and more than 19 years, respectively.

Also, "when (Trump) singled me out and started attacking me, I lost all support from my Republican-led Legislature," Whitmer said. "They had been with me, we had been keeping them informed, we had been telling them why we were making the decisions we were, and they had supported them up until that time."

Whitmer said that of the two Republican legislative leaders in place when the pandemic struck, one went "kind of full QAnon" at the end of his term, and the other is "being prosecuted." Though she didn't identify either GOP leader by name, Whitmer was clearly referencing Shirkey, the former Senate majority leader, and former House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, who has not been prosecuted for any alleged crime but is under criminal investigation in connection with alleged sexual and financial wrongdoing. Chatfield through his attorney has denied any criminal misconduct.

Neither Shirkey nor Chatfield could be reached for comment Thursday morning.

Shirkey's farewell speech in the Senate in December included references to apparent conspiracy theories. He said "little 'g' gods" want to achieve world dominance, with one government and one religion. Shirkey did not specifically reference QAnon, a far-right movement that counts concerns about a cabal that they say includes Democratic politicians and business leaders promoting sex trafficking of children among conspiracy theories voiced by its adherents.

Asked to identify any mistakes she made, Whitmer immediately pointed to her controversial 2019 proposal to increase the fuel tax by 45 cents per gallon as a way of financing her 2018 election pledge to "fix the damn roads."

She said it may have been a mistake, but it "was an earnest attempt to try to fix the problem I said I was going to fix."

Whitmer said that if she was Tudor Dixon, the 2022 Republican candidate for governor, "that's the ad I would have run against me the whole time," adding: "I don't know why they didn't do it, but I'm glad they didn't."

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Whitmer's husband, Marc Mallory, retired from dentistry after threats