Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer posted a truly bizarre video to her Twitter page on Thursday in which she used Santa Claus to spread a message of mask-wearing and social distancing while also telling children in her state not to visit their grandparents for Christmas.

“And another way to stay safe during the holiday is to stay home but call your grandparents and your cousins and your family,” Whitmer told Michigan children. “It’s the a safest way to tell the people you love how much you care about them. This year is it has to look a little bit different so we can stay safe.”

Whitmer kicked off the video by referring to Santa as her “special guest” and as “someone who’s been really following the rules and making sure that he stays safe and the elves stay safe.”

In questions that seemed to be preselected, the children made queries of Santa that included “Santa, do you have to wear a mask?” and “How can we keep people safe for Christmas?”

Santa answered this second question by saying, “What I would suggest to do is what the governor is telling all the people of the great state of Michigan to do: Social distance, wash your hands, and make sure you wear your mask when you’re outside your home.”

As Michigan's kids gear up for the holiday season, I decided to surprise a few of them with a special guest from the North Pole! pic.twitter.com/aI6qGkrouS

— Governor Gretchen Whitmer (@GovWhitmer) December 16, 2020

Whitmer has become infamous for enacting some of the strictest COVID-19 restrictions in her state, and it didn’t take long for this video to blow up in her face.

“You doing this qualifies as child abuse,” one user said, with another adding, That’s nice since a lot of kids won’t be having much of a Christmas due to your insane lockdowns.”

“You exemplify the problem in politics/government today,” a third user wrote. “You believe that you are a ‘class’ above, and the ‘regular people’ have no right to question you. You are an oath breaking/ignoring traitorous bilge rat that should be removed from office and society.”

“Nothing like seeing Santa on a screen while you sit home learning next to nothing with your abusive parents who’ve lost their jobs,” said a fourth commenter.

Nice try, Gretchen, but it seems that this was yet another fail for you.

This piece was written by James Samson on December 19, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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