Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has embarked on a tour for her first book, “True Gretch,” but not surprisingly, she’s been fielding an avalanche of media questions about President Joe Biden and whether he should stay in the race — including from the Michigan Advance.

As a national co-chair of the Biden-Harris reelection campaign who was considered to be on the ticket in 2020, Whitmer has been out front in support of the president. 

In a Tuesday afternoon telephone interview with the governor while she was in New York, the Michigan Advance asked her why she issued such a short tweet last week following a White House meeting with the president where Democratic governors expressed concerns about Biden’s rambling debate performance and if he was up to defeating former President Donald Trump.

.@JoeBiden is our nominee. He is in it to win it and I support him.

— Gretchen Whitmer (@gretchenwhitmer) July 4, 2024

“I’ll just say, I wanted to be there because I wanted to see the president and I wanted to show my support,” she said.

Whitmer added that she couldn’t stay for the press conference afterward that Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held because she had to get on a plane and the “pilots can only be out for 12 hours total.”

“But I wanted to make sure that people didn’t read my absence from it as anything other than what it was. And so I did want to make sure that people knew that the president has my support,” Whitmer said.

The Advance also asked Whitmer if she has any concerns about Biden  being the nominee.

“I don’t. That debate was rough. I think everyone acknowledges that that was a setback,” she said. By the same token, the president that I saw that day and that I talked to just this past Saturday, has got the same kind of energy that I’ve known him to always have. So he’s got to keep showing that, and that’s only he can do that. But I’ve got confidence in him. I know he is going to be in Michigan on Friday, and he’s got quite a schedule that he’s keeping up. And I think he’s showing people that he really is up to this.”

When asked if she would be joining Biden at his scheduled campaign stop in Detroit on Friday or if she would be traveling, Whitmer told the Advance, “I don’t know that I’ll be there on Friday.” 

Deadline reported that Whitmer had been at a Biden campaign fundraiser and debate watch party in California with celebrities and Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, but she corrected the record.

“It’s so funny because I was at the event prior to the debate. It was a three governors’ event. And then I left, unfortunately, before the debate, so I wasn’t there during that part of it,” Whitmer told the Advance.

When asked if she watched the Biden-Trump debate on her own, Whitmer said, “You know what, I actually didn’t see the whole debate. I saw clips of it. I had to head to the airport and get home.”

Whitmer carried a similar message Tuesday morning to a national audience, telling George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America” that she’s all in for Biden. 

“I have great confidence in this president,” said Whitmer. “He’s got receipts. He’s delivered for the American people, and I’m glad that he’s ready to continue this fight.”

When asked how she responded to Democrats like U.S. Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) or Jon Tester (D-Mont.) saying Biden still must prove his fitness for office, Whitmer said she was confident that he has and will continue to do so.

“I respect the conversation that’s happening, and, certainly, I think what we’ve seen from the president is an eagerness to get out and about,” she said. “He’s going to be in Michigan later this week. He’s getting all across the country. I think he’s shown that he’s got the energy, and he’s ready to take this on.”

Whitmer also appeared on “The View” on Tuesday and was questioned by the hosts whether Biden was doing enough to show he is capable of doing the job. She said he does it every day.

“He’s with NATO this week. He’s got all these different events that are happening. So we’re seeing he’s keeping up a heck of a schedule. He went to Europe back and forth twice in one week,” she responded. “You know, that’s a brutal schedule. He’s keeping it up. So I think that we’re going to see him have this incredible rigor to his schedule, and he’s going to show up, and he’s going to talk about what he’s done and what the future looks like. And I think that’s what Americans want, deserve, and need to see from our president.”

Then she was asked if she would serve as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the event Biden were to step aside.

“I have never looked at opportunities in Washington, D.C., with a lot of excitement because I love Michigan,” she said. “I love state government because I know when we’re feeding 1.4 million Michigan school kids free breakfast and lunch, I can see what it means to people. And that’s why I love state government. But, you know, I’ll never say never, but that’s not something that I am angling for.” 

That dovetails with Whitmer’s office on Wednesday putting out a press release celebrating that next year’s budget will continue funding free school meals because “when students are fed,” Whitmer said, “they can focus better in class.”

Back on “The View,” co-host Sunny Hostin made note of Whitmer’s “never say never” statement, the governor quickly shot that down.

“No,” she said. “I’ve made a commitment to serve through my term.”

The Advance asked her about that exchange and Whitmer said that a writeup of the interview might have also overplayed that remark.

“I don’t believe this ticket’s going to change,” Whitmer said. “It is going to be Biden and Harris. And I am supporting them. And I have got absolutely zero interest in leaving Michigan before my term is up, that’s for sure.”

In a previous interview with the Michigan Advance before the Mackinac Policy Conference — about a month before the debate — Whitmer had similarly pledged to finish out her tenure as governor.

Whitmer clashed frequently with Trump when he was president, particularly during COVID-19, as she noted in her book. At one point he bragged that he was instructing the federal government not to give Michigan help because Whitmer had criticized him, calling her that “woman from Michigan.” In contrast, she and Gilchrist have frequently praised Biden and Harris as being “great partners” to the state.

The Advance asked Whitmer how a second Trump term would change the last two years of her governorship.

“I don’t believe that he’s going to win a second term. I think at the end of the day, people are going to remember that the chaos that we lived under during his time as president, no question, people know that fundamental rights have been eroded because of the nominees he put on the Supreme Court,” Whitmer said.

“We know that manufacturing is coming back in America thanks to Joe Biden’s work. The cost of living is more manageable thanks to things like the work he did to bring down the price of insulin, as one important example. But this is a stark decision that we have. And it’s, the work that I’m doing to make sure that Joe Biden continues to be president is really important,” she continued. “Now that being said … I will work with whomever is in the White House because my oath is the people of Michigan, and that’s first and foremost in terms of how I show up to work every single day.

Whitmer is termed out in 2026 and has long been at the top of most pundits’ lists as a 2028 presidential contender — long before Biden was inundated with criticism over his debate. The Advance asked the governor if she did run for president in the future, what she would want to accomplish.

“Susan, I don’t know that I’ll ever run for president,” Whitmer said, somewhat wearily. “I know this, that we need leaders who care about people and can solve problems and can work with anybody. I will always be an enthusiastic supporter of great candidates. I don’t know that I’ll be one myself. But I think that I understand where the questions are coming from. Sorry, I don’t have a more satisfying answer for you.”