TRENTON, N.J. – Former Governor Christine Todd Whitman is a notable Trump hater; it wasn’t that long ago that she accused the Republican president of being a dictator.
This week, she penned a new op-ed for The Star-Ledger chastising President Trump for his controversial Ilhan Omar tweet:
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“In response to Trump’s tweets against these congresswomen (which he continues to defend), a Virginia church put up a sign stating, “America: Love it or Leave it” in front of the building. Freedom of speech is a basic tenet of our democracy, and separation of church and state has been a foundation of our Constitution, yet the two are so contorted here, it can be hard to unwind.”
“On Wednesday night, the president stood before a campaign rally audience that began chanting, “Send her back!” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. While he subsequently has denied that he encouraged that, for an extended period of time he basked in it and didn’t resume his speech until the chant died down on its own. How have we fallen this far that a mob would suggest forcefully sending an American citizen elsewhere as a result of her suggestions for improvements to our country?”
She even accused POTUS of overt racism:
“Our president has shown time and again that he is comfortable demonizing his opponents with broad strokes. Immigrants, congressional representatives, women both specific and in general, and religious minorities have all been subjected to his acrimonious attacks, but these particular tweets were not merely a racist dog whistle. They were a bugle.”
Click here to read the full op-ed.
You’d think she might be more forgiving — or at least slow to judge – in light of the fact that Whitman was no stranger to race-tinged controversy during her own public career.
In 1996, Whitman was photographed patting down a black teenager named Sherron Rolax during a Camden patrol with the N.J. State Police. The broad grin on her face became infamous ahead of the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia (the photo took four years to surface).
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