Attorney General Dana Nessel apologizes, shares U-M-MSU game photo she dubbed 'Tailgate-Gate'
Photo from Attorney General Dana Nessel's Facebook statement.
FOX 2 - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel released an apology Wednesday night regarding an incident from the Michigan-Michigan State football game in East Lansing on Oct. 30.
Nessel posted a photo of herself appearing slumped in her seat during the game on social media under the headline, "My official statement on 'Tail-gate Gate.'"
In the statement, she said she said she drank two bloody marys on an empty stomach while tailgating before the game, causing her to feel sick.
"Before the big game, I attended a tailgate on an empty stomach. Much to my surprise, MSU tailgate’s tend to have more alcohol than food, so I thought it seemed like a good idea to eat 2 Bloody Mary’s, since as long as you put enough vegetables in them, it’s practically a salad. As it turned out, this was not a brilliant idea. Also, I might be a terrible bartender," she quipped. "I proceeded to go to the game (which I’m told Michigan definitely won!) and started to feel ill. I laid low for a while, but my friends recommended that I leave so as to prevent me from vomiting on any of my constituents."
From there, she detailed how she received help to leave the game and emphasized she did not drive herself.
"I had a few folks help me up the stairs and someone grabbed a wheelchair so as to prevent me from stumbling in the parking lot," Nessel said. "Like all smart people attending festivities where drinking occurs, I had a designated driver. I went home, fell asleep on the couch, and my wife threw some blankets on me and provided me with some water and Tylenol for what she knew would be a skull-crushing hangover the next day."
Nessel in the statement said that usually she would have gotten some help from her "trusted friend and communications savant" Kelly Rossman-McKinney, but she died Tuesday after a battle with cancer.
Tori Sachs, the executive director of the conservative Michigan Freedom Fund, blasted Nessel on social media and seized on the opportunity to call her out.
"The issue isn't that she got embarrassingly drunk at our state’s most-watched public event, it's that she is completely erratic, irrational, and lacks judgment," Sachs tweeted.
In the preamble to her apology, she mentioned her staff pleaded with her to hire a crisis-management PR firm for the incident, but she said she wanted to share the event herself, which "transpired that fateful day."
"I am human. Sometimes I screw up. This was definitely one of those times," she wrote. "My apologies to the entire state of Michigan for this mishap, but especially that Michigan fan sitting behind me. Some things you can’t un-see.
"From now on, I pledge never to drink on an empty stomach, and definitely never to have another Bloody Mary. Cause it’s gonna take a while to get that taste out of my mouth.
"Sorry to all the people who have supported me for letting you down. I will try to do better."