According to Fox news
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been accused of encouraging assassination attempts on President Trump after displaying “8645” in the background of a national television interview Sunday.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the Democratic governor spoke from Lansing, Mich., about her state’s coronavirus restrictions and slammed Trump’s response to the pandemic, all while the digits “8645” in bubble letters were perched by a house plant on a coffee table behind her. The numbers prompted a reaction from one of the Trump campaign’s verified Twitter accounts.
“Governor Gretchen Whitmer displayed an ’86 45′ sign during her TV appearance,” Trump War Room tweeted, adding: “86 can be shorthand for killing someone.”
Governor Gretchen Whitmer displayed an "86 45" sign during her TV appearance.
86 can be shorthand for killing someone.
Whitmer is encouraging assassination attempts against President Trump just weeks after someone sent a ricin-laced package to the White House. pic.twitter.com/GzvtrjH40A
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 18, 2020
“Whitmer is encouraging assassination attempts against President Trump just weeks after someone sent a ricin-laced package to the White House,” the account wrote.
Shortly after Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service intercepted an envelope addressed to the White House containing the deadly substance ricin. A woman from Quebec was arrested at the U.S.-Canada border days later and is now facing federal charges in connection to the case.
It was unclear from the tweet what the numbers meant to convey, but, colloquially the term “86” is slang for canceling someone, killing someone, or ejecting someone, sometimes from a bar or restaurant. Meanwhile, Trump is the 45th president of the United States.
In a statement to Fox News, Courtney Parella, the deputy national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said, “By Gretchen Whitmer’s own standard, displaying something encouraging people to ‘86’ the President is employing dangerous rhetoric.”
During the interview, Whitmer also reacted to a video clip showing Trump at a campaign rally in Muskegon, Mich., on Saturday, where the president told the crowd “you gotta get your governor to open up your state,” adding “you gotta get your schools open.”
The crowd then chanted, “Lock her up,” referring to Whitmer, before Trump added, “Lock them all up.”
“It’s incredibly disturbing that the President of the United States — 10 days after a plot to kidnap, put me on trial, and execute me — 10 days after that was uncovered, the president is at it again and inspiring, incentivizing and inciting this kind of domestic terrorism,” Whitmer said, reacting to the clip. “It is wrong. It has got to end – not just for me and my family but for public servants everywhere who are doing their jobs and trying to protect their fellow Americans.”