LANSING (Michigan) • Hours after the federal authorities charged six people with attempting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, she held a press conference and blamed President Donald Trump for creating an environment that encourages such radical criminal behaviour.

"Our head of state has spent the past seven months denying science, ignoring his own health experts, stoking distrust, fomenting anger and giving comfort to those who spread fear and hatred and division," Ms Whitmer told reporters in Lansing, the state capital.

"Last week," she said, "the president of the United States stood before the American people and refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups like these two Michigan militia groups. Stand back and stand by, he told them."

Ms Whitmer said on Thursday that hate groups heard the president's words "not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, as a call to action".

Mr Trump later lashed out at Ms Whitmer in a series of Twitter posts. In one, he said the federal authorities "had foiled a dangerous plot against the Governor of Michigan. Rather than say thank you, she calls me a White Supremacist".

He continued the criticism in a phone interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Thursday night.

Michigan Attorney-General Dana Nessel said six people had been charged with plotting to kidnap Ms Whitmer as part of a plan to overthrow the state's government.

The suspects allegedly staked out Ms Whitmer's vacation home and planned to set off explosives to distract police while they kidnapped the governor.

The US said it would also bring charges against seven other people connected to the Wolverine Watchmen militia for attempts to target law enforcement officers and start a civil war.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who spoke with Ms Whitmer earlier in the day, complimented the Federal Bureau of Investigation and police for handling the matter and criticised Mr Trump.

"The words of a president matter," Mr Biden said. "They can cause a nation to have the market rise or fall, go to war, make peace, but they can also breathe oxygen into those who are filled with hate and danger. And I just think it's got to stop."

Ms Whitmer's comments are the latest chapter in a running feud with Mr Trump. She accused him of being slow to deliver medical supplies in March when the coronavirus pandemic was spreading rapidly in her state. Mr Trump criticised Ms Whitmer for not swiftly reopening the Michigan economy.

Mr Trump told Vice-President Mike Pence at a White House briefing in late March: "Don't call the woman in Michigan."

That prompted her supporters to don T-shirts with the tagline "That Woman From Michigan".

Ms Whitmer said during the press conference she never expected to have her life threatened as governor. "When I put my hand on the Bible and took the oath of office 22 months ago, I knew this job would be hard, but I'll be honest, I never could have imagined anything like this," she said.

The pandemic has created a deep political divide in the state where Ms Whitmer initiated some of the nation's toughest mandates to stop the spread of the virus. That led to criticism from Mr Trump and Republican leaders in the state.

Marches against her orders were organised and an armed protest at the capitol led to the cancellation of a legislative session.

Ms Whitmer's measures have been effective in slowing the virus' spread. In early April, the state had more than 2,000 new cases a day. The number has since dropped to fewer than 1,000 new cases on some days and under 100 on others. The state's unemployment rate fell to 8.7 per cent in August from more than 10 per cent in June.

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What the plot was about

The FBI and Michigan state authorities have charged 13 men who they said were part of, or working with, an anti-government group with a range of crimes including terrorism, conspiracy and gun offences.

The men had referred to Michigan's Governor Gretchen Whitmer in vulgar terms, the authorities said, and seemed to be motivated by a belief that she was a "tyrant" who was violating the Constitution.

The authorities said the group that planned the kidnapping met repeatedly over the summer for firearms training and combat drills and practised building explosives.

Members also gathered several times to discuss the mission, including in the basement of a shop that was accessible only through a "trap door" under a rug. The men spied on Ms Whitmer's vacation home in August and September.

They went looking under a highway bridge for places they could place and detonate a bomb to distract the authorities, the FBI said.

They indicated that they wanted to take Ms Whitmer hostage before the Nov 3 presidential election, and one man said they should take her to a "secure location" in Wisconsin for a "trial", according to FBI special agent Richard Trask II in the criminal complaint.

He said one of those arrested had bought a Taser for the mission and that the men had been planning to buy explosives.

Prosecutors say the men also sought to single out law enforcement officers for intimidation, made threats of violence to incite civil unrest, and trained for an operation to storm the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing and take government officials hostage.

NYTIMES, REUTERS