Gretchen Whitmer apologizes for blatant lockdown hypocrisy after getting caught in dive bar

The photo in question surfaced briefly on social media before being deleted by the person who posted it, but by that time, the media had already taken notice.

In the photo, Whitmer appeared at the Landshark Bar and Grill, a famous "dive bar" in East Lansing. She and all the other attendees are maskless and seated very close together in the crowded venue.

"Yesterday, I went with friends to a local restaurant. As more people arrived, the tables were pushed together. Because we were all vaccinated, we didn’t stop to think about it. In retrospect, I should have thought about it. I am human. I made a mistake, and I apologize."

Whitmer, in the course of the pandemic, has famously instituted one of the country's strictest lockdowns, with what critics have called incomprehensible and draconian rules.

This incident is added to another potentially even more serious incident, where Whitmer told her constituents to not travel out of the state, and then boarded a private jet to FL in the middle of the cold weather in MI. This plane flight happened right when daily COVID cases were peaking, according to the Detroit Free Press.

In addition, the plane flight was mostly paid for with funds from a non-profit organization under Whitmer's control which was established to cover the costs of inaugurations.