The Catholic League criticized Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) on Friday for posting a video showing her feeding a Dorito to a podcaster, with the group accusing her of mocking the Eucharist.
“Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer insulted Catholics nationwide when she intentionally ridiculed the Eucharist in a video,” Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, wrote in a statement.
“There is no way to understand this stunt other than as an expression of vintage anti-Catholic bigotry. Whitmer’s team, and her allies in the media, are trying to distort what she did,” he said.
Podcaster Liz Plank posted a video on her Instagram showing herself kneeling and being fed a Dorito. The camera turns to Whitmer who offers the camera a serious expression while wearing Harris-Walz campaign gear.
The song “Dilemma,” by Nelly and Kelly Rowland, plays in the background. Videos showing a similar dynamic of people being fed have been popular on TikTok.
“If he won’t, Gretchen Whitmer will,” Plank wrote in a corresponding post that connected the video to legislation known as the CHIPS Act that is meant to boost the U.S. semiconductor sector.
“Chips aren’t just delicious, the CHIPS Act is a game-changer for U.S. tech and manufacturing, boosting domestic production of semiconductors to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers! Donald Trump would put that at risk,” Plank wrote.
Donohue derided the idea that the post was meant to be in support of semiconductor legislation signed into law by President Biden.
“There are indeed many clips of people feeding each other on social media, but there is no reference to the CHIPS Act, nor are they eating chips. The typical video on Tik Tok shows one person sitting at a table, often in a restaurant, being fed—usually with a fork or spoon—by a friend,” he argued.
“None of them are kneeling. None of them are receiving food on the tongue,” he added. “What Whitmer did was to deride Holy Communion. There is no wiggle room for her to deny the obvious.”
Helene Hare, a spokeswoman for Whitmer’s Fight Like Hell PAC, responded to Catholic League’s criticism noting in a statement that “the governor’s social media is well known for infusing her communications with pop culture.”
“This popular trend has been used by countless people, including Billie Eilish to Kylie Jenner to Stephen Colbert, and the fact that people are paying attention to a video promoting President Biden’s CHIPS Act proves it’s working,” she explained. “Republicans want to distract from the fact that Democrats have invested billions of dollars into local economies to create a record number of jobs and bring supply chains back from overseas, while Donald Trump’s policies would kill these jobs and send them back to China.”
The remarks come less than a month before the election as both Vice President Harris and former President Trump make their case to voters in the battleground states, such as Pennsylvania where Catholics make up a key voting bloc.
Updated: 11:53 a.m.
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