Tudor Dixon Talks Whitmer, China, UFOs and the Sorry Lions

CLAY: We now are headed up to Michigan where Tudor Dixon, Republican candidate for governor, is. She is doing a podcast soon that will be a part, I believe, of the Clay and Buck Network as a part of iHeart.

And she ran against Gretchen Whitmer in November. Tudor, appreciate you joining us. We wanted to talk to start about what got shot down in Michigan. Do we have any idea — and why don’t we have a fuller picture of what exactly is going on as one of these unidentified objects was shot down, I believe, near the U.P. in Michigan?

DIXON: Yeah. Wouldn’t it be great to have more information? Thank you for having me. By the way, I’m excited to be on. We are, in Michigan, certainly wondering exactly what this was. But the whole country is. I mean, this is the fourth thing that we’re talking about being shot down. These are being called “objects.” The first, of course, was the supposed surveillance spy balloon. But we don’t even have enough information on that. Think about how bizarre this is when you already have Justin Trudeau — who has come out and addressed his nation — Joe Biden is ducking reporters still running into SUVs.

CLAY: It’s so bad for Gretchen Whitmer, by the way, that Jake Tapper at CNN is even doing journalism. I want to play you a cut of Gretchen Whitmer being asked — particularly in light of the fact who knows where this object that was shot down is from and whether it might just be Joe Biden overreacting now, his administration, because they blew it the first time we had the Chinese spy balloon come across the country and now they’re shooting down things the left and right, whether they’re associated with China or not. But I did think this was a good question from Jake Tapper on CNN of Gretchen Whitmer about her embrace of TikTok given what’s going on in the country right now.

Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer defends her use of the Chinese spyware app TikTok because it’s only “on one device” and she doesn’t “do it because it’s fun.” pic.twitter.com/v4mjaAY1rY

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 12, 2023

WHITMER: Let’s use TikTok on one device that has nothing else on it. It is a communication tool. We don’t do it because it’s fun, although some people think what I put out there can be fun on occasion. My kids disagree. (laughing) I don’t.

TAPPER: I don’t buy that you don’t have fun doing TikToks.

WHITMER: But the point is, we have it on one device that has no access to anything else because so many people get their information that way. Whether we like it or not, that is a tool for disseminating important information, and — and that’s how we use it. But we’re always evaluating because we want to make sure that we are protecting data in Michigan. And that’s why we’re — we’re always evaluating. But at this point, the way we use it is — is secure.

CLAY: We might have shut down something from China over Michigan, and Gretchen Whitmer is fine with using a Chinese-based app to communicate with Michiganders and beyond. What do you think about that, Tudor?

DIXON: This is how little she cares about national security. Chuck Schumer is out there saying there should be a federal ban on TikTok on all government devices. Now, you expect me to believe that Gretchen Whitmer has some secret TikTok burner phone? And she’s like, “Look, the dogs are doing something that Michigan has to see! Grab the burner phone! We’ve got to do a TikTok!” Give me a break.

The US military shoots down another object that flew OVER MICHIGAN just hours after Gretchen Whitmer defended using a Chinese social media app.

No, showing off leather jackets is not “important information.”https://t.co/Er5pjwzxIc

— Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) February 12, 2023

CLAY: (laughing) This is really funny to argue. Yeah, like, they have a special burner phone that only has TikTok downloaded on it. I mean, who is paying for this phone? Is this like, how many burner phones does Gretchen Whitmer need if she’s using different phones for different apps? This is crazy. I mean, that makes no sense. It’s a great point.

DIXON: “I feel a TikTok comin’ on! You got to get the burner phone.”

CLAY: (laughing)

DIXON: I mean, and the things that she says are so incredibly important are like her leather jacket fashion show. She did that. She dances with her daughters. And I’m meant to believe that there’s constantly a staffer around her that’s like, “Well, let me make sure this is secure. Let me make sure that this is nothing that the Chinese need,” because obviously, this important information that is so critical that she has to communicate on TikTok is important enough for people in Michigan, but it doesn’t matter to the Chinese. It’s not that important. I mean, come on.

This is a vanity issue here. This is somebody who wants to be out there constantly in the public eye, cute and adorable. This is not what a governor does, and it’s certainly not what someone who’s taking national security seriously does. But look, she’s not taking national security seriously. We’ve got an announcement today that… Well, if you look at the media, it will say (summarized) “Ford” is bringing a new battery plant to Michigan. Let me remind you of a couple of weeks ago when Governor Youngkin came out and said, “Listen, Michigan can take our sloppy seconds because I’m not interested in having a Chinese corporation in Virginia,” and Gretchen Whitmer said, “We welcome a Chinese corporation.” It’s not Ford.

Thanks to Whitmer, MI is rapidly becoming the epicenter of Chinese activity in North America.

Taxpayers deserve leaders who value our national security and money over the bragging rights of false economic development success at the hands of our enemy. https://t.co/5bFumwKw1t

— Tudor Dixon (@TudorDixon) February 12, 2023

It’s a partnership with a Chinese corporation that will buy property in the state of Michigan and have a company. And let me tell you something, China is not saying, “Yes, we are… We are going to welcome American companies to buy property here.” We don’t own property in China, and we shouldn’t allow the Chinese to own property in Michigan. But she has zero economic plan. She stated this from the very beginning. The only economic plan she had the entire campaign was she was going to offer people abortions, and that was truly it. When she was asked her economic plan, that was truly what she came out and said. Now she’s going to play footsie with the Chinese. Beyond footsie, she’s welcoming them into the state and she’s using their funny little social media apps that are sucking information out of state government into China. It’s absolutely horrendous.

CLAY: And I would think I mean, you’ve got your heartbeat on the pulse — the pulse on the heartbeat of Michigan right now. This is crazy to me. When we did Friday’s show, Tudor, I said, “We’ll certainly know what we might have shot down by the time we come on Monday’s show.” Since then, we’ve shut down more things over the weekend — again, including in Michigan. Isn’t it kind of crazy that we don’t have any idea what’s actually going on here?

DIXON: There’s a couple of things that are disturbing here. We ask, “Well, how all of a sudden are all of these things floating above the United States?” and the government says, “Oh, we tweaked the radar a bit.” (laughing) What?

CLAY: Yeah.

DIXON: “Yeah, the radar. But, yeah, this could have been always happening.” What? What? What are these things? And to your point, are they dangerous? Are they something from another country? You know, everybody’s saying, “Well, these are unidentified objects,” and so people are like, “UFOs!” UFOs are obviously not always alien. But, you know, then there’s the rumors that go around that it is self-propelled, it’s just a cylinder floating above the earth.

Yes. We should have some briefing from the government about this because the reality is people are terrified. I mean, there really are people across the country that are like, “What is happening? Are we going to get invaded? Are these things that could be holding bombs? Could they hold bioweapons?” We just went through a pandemic, and this administration came in and said, “Our number one issue is going to be to keep people safe, get people back to normal life.” But they’re not telling us when we have something that appears to be a major safety issue. Why? I mean, if you have jets scrambling to shoot something down, you sure as heck better tell the American people what’s going on.

CLAY: No doubt. And that’s a great point about “tweaking the radar” as well, because that to me means maybe the radar wasn’t working. Like, the whole purpose of the radar is for us to know about potential threats that could be in our airspace, and it’s not crazy to think that when Joe Biden allowed a Chinese spy balloon to enter the United States in Idaho, go all the way across the country and then exit in South Carolina, that China or some other foreign adversary might have thought, “Oh, I wonder what we can get away with now,” and that is now precipitating these issues. But the fact that we don’t know coming up on basically 72 hours since the first object was shot down off the coast of Alaska is kind of crazy.

DIXON: Right. This idea that suddenly they say, “Oh, don’t worry, we’ve tweaked it a bit and now we can see a heck of a lot more, but now we’re shooting things down.” (laughing) What do you mean? Were we using radar from like the fifties and then they realize —

CLAY: Yeah.

DIXON: — “Oh, actually, things have gotten a little bit better. Maybe we enhance this a bit.” So, yeah, I think it’s irresponsible. But this just goes along with the Biden administration. And then you’ve got the press secretary out there stumbling and fumbling over her words because she clearly has not been briefed effectively to tell anybody in the country what’s going on, which I think makes people more uneasy when they see a press secretary — who is so unprepared to answer questions and incapable — falling over her own words. It’s like having Kamala Harris up there giving us a press briefing.

CLAY: (laughing) We’re going to play that audio for people who haven’t heard Karine Jean-Pierre attempt to explain what’s been going on. I’ll play you that for you the next cut. Last question for you, Tudo r– and this is the real hot seat: Will the Detroit Lions win a Super Bowl in your or mine’s lifetime?

DIXON: (laughing) Someone asked me, “Who are you rooting for in the Super Bowl?” And I was like, “You know, the Bears and the Lions have not been in the Super Bowl for a long time. So I’m out again on this one. I’ll let you know.” That was a big question during the campaign, though. People said, “We’ll vote for you if you can make sure that the Lions win the Super Bowl,” and I was like, “Okay. Obviously, I mean, at this point, I just have to give up the vote.”

CLAY: I my wife, obviously, as you know, is from the Detroit area. So the amount of frustration from Lions fans, I didn’t really understand until we got married —

DIXON: (laughing)

CLAY: — and I bet you really understood it when you were on the campaign trail hearing about the Lions all the time. To be fair, they had a good run at the end of their season, but they’ve only won one playoff game — again, sorry Lions fans — since the 1950s. Tudor, we will talk to you again soon. Keep up the good work.

DIXON: Thank you.

CLAY: That is Tudor Dixon.