Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) went on MSNBC on Thursday to claim the despite the surge of coronavirus cases in her state, she could not get the Republican-controlled legislature to “just deploy resources that the Trump administration sent.”

“Boris Johnson, of the UK, of course, who has not been a huge fan of restrictive-public-health measures and also in a country that has been vaccinating quite aggressively, had, I think, born of the same variant, the B.1.1.7 an outbreak in the UK, and they basically ordered a kind of shut down for two weeks. He’s now credited that with breaking the back of the epidemic,” said host Chris Hayes. “Do you have the political ability to do that in your state after all that you have been through?”

“Well, I was sued by the Republican legislature here in Michigan. I lost in the Supreme Court. It was a Republican-dominated Supreme Court,” Whitmer replied. “I lost some of those executive powers. We do retain some powers. But we are so, incredibly divided after, I think, the politics of the last-14 months. So, it is very difficult in a moment where I am still trying to get the legislature to just deploy resources that the Trump administration sent us.”

“So, what might seem like a natural thing to do is much more complicated than what the CDC might suggest when you look at the reality here, on the ground,” she added. “But we do have some of the strongest protocols in place. If people would double down on it and make their vaccination appointment, we will get through this.”

In an ABC appearance that same day, Whitmer claimed that it will be up to Michiganders to stop the surge that happened despite the fact that she imposed some of the strictest COVID-19 restrictions in the country on her state.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to come down to whether or not the citizens take this seriously and do their part,” Whitmer said. “And that’s really going to be the answer to getting us out of this moment.

“We’re starting to see things look as though they’re slowing down a bit. I don’t want to, by any stretch, say that this isn’t serious and that we don’t all have to take this very seriously, but we’re making progress,” she added.