She said Whitmer is "not a businesswoman" and is a "politician with a law degree," and then invoked the kidnapping plot.

"Threats of violence -- whether to Governor Whitmer or to candidates and elected officials on the other side of the aisle -- are no laughing matter, and the fact that Tudor Dixon thinks it's a joke shows that she is absolutely unfit to serve in public office."

After her comment drew backlash, Dixon joked again about the kidnapping plot at a second event Friday, this time with Donald Trump Jr., the son of the former President.

She told a crowd that, at a stop with President Joe Biden at the Detroit Auto Show last week, Whitmer looked like she'd "rather be kidnapped by the FBI."

"Yeah, the media is like, 'Oh my gosh, she did it again,'" Dixon said, anticipating the reaction to her second reference of the day to the 2020 kidnapping plot.

As she told the crowd that her earlier remarks about the plot to kidnap Whitmer had been characterized as a joke, Dixon said: "I'm like, 'No, that wasn't a joke.' If you were afraid of that, you should know what it is to have your life ripped away from you."

Dixon, pressed later Friday about her remarks making light of the plot, then defended them to CNN.

"I think when you're being attacked every day, you have to have a little levity in things," she said.

"You know, the FBI can try to entrap a couple of meth heads somewhere and run with that narrative now."

Dixon, a conservative commentator and businesswoman from Norton Shores, won Michigan's Republican primary to take on Whitmer in August.