The chair of the Vermont Republican Party has doubled down on her unabashed support for President Donald Trump, penning a blistering critique of his opponents that seems destined to deepen the ideological divisions within the struggling state party.
Deb Billado’s message, sent last week in the party’s official newsletter, derided the president’s critics as “left-wing hatemongers” and a “mob of hate-crazed, fear-driven people who have become deranged” because “crooked Hillary Clinton” lost to Trump. Billado described the president as a “principled man” who “can’t be bought.”
She suggested that former special counsel Robert Mueller was merely a “figurehead” whose “feeble” congressional testimony proved he “barely knew what happened in the investigation and obviously was not the person directing” it. She wrote that instead of blasting Trump for his efforts to solve the crisis at the southern border, Democrats, if they were patriots, would work with him to solve it.
“We know they are not capable of that,” Billado wrote. “Surely makes an observer think that they must hate America.”
Some elected Vermont Republicans immediately distanced themselves from Billado’s comments.
“This is not the tone or example we should be setting in Vermont and is an example of the divisiveness that’s hurting the country,” Rebecca Kelley, Gov. Phil Scott’s spokesperson, said in a written statement. “Governor Scott is committed to increasing the civility of our public discourse and treating all with respect, even when we disagree.”
Sen. Corey Parent (R-Franklin) tweeted that he was disappointed in Billado’s diatribe.
“Our country is deeply divided and the email sent out only seeks to gain cheap political points based on that division,” Parent wrote. “It’s time we all do better.”
Rep. Heidi Scheuermann (R-Stowe) tweeted that she expressed to Billado her “disappointment and frustration.” She posted a link to a piece written by Kenneth Hersh, president and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, in the wake of the mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas. Scheuermann tweeted that she was struck by the “stark difference in message & tone.” Hersh’s message, she wrote, was “Dignified. Unifying. Inspirational.”
Billado said she had received several messages of support for her piece in recent days, and dismissed the criticism with, “That’s politics.”
“I’m doing what I believe my job is, and that is protecting Republicans,” she said. “The Republican Party’s mission is to get Republicans elected up and down the ticket.”
Senate Minority Leader Joe Benning (R-Caledonia) said he understands that Billado has a “very fine line” to walk as party chair in the current political climate, but he thinks the state party would be well served to focus on its core mission: Vermont.
“There is such a battle going on right now about the Trump presidency that I think many elements of the party are forgetting that the main role of the state party is about electing Republicans to the state legislature,” Benning said.
The state Republican platform of limited government can help address issues such as increasing property taxes and health care costs, unfunded state liabilities, and Vermont’s slipping credit rating, he said. But stoking divisions within the party makes it hard to keep those issues front and center.
“The shrillest voices are engaging in their self-confirming enclaves on social media, and those folks do not, in my opinion, represent the mainstream of the Republican Party,” Benning said.
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It sounds like she is supporting the Trump party, not the Republican party. There is a stark difference. We miss you, Jim Jeffords.
Pretty short-sighted of Billado to make this speech (and support this president). What is she going to tell her grandchildren, when they ask why she fell for this?
Most Republicans denounce her while loving every minute of Trump’s presidency. It’s like the religious right complaining about Trump’s language. Do anything you want, destroy the planet, separate families. Throw people off food stamps. But don’t swear!
Ms. Billado perhaps you would be better off living in Florida. Your diatribe and incisiveness as one of your own party members calls your words are better suited in that climate. We need to work together. #snowbirdflysouth
I fail to understand why the Vermont Trump Supporters and the Vermont Never-Trumpsters can’t just shup-up about their differences about the Republican President and just concentrate on mending fences to promote the Republican brand and ideals without having a cat fight about the president. Republicans have enough thing to worry about on the home front – like finding enough worthy, electable candidates to fill the election ballot in November of 2020. Get your act together or the Republican brand will only be the equal of the Green Mountain, Marijuana and Liberty-Union Parties !
Oh brother. Republicans are all driven by nothing but hate and greed so why the phony outrage over Billados rant? She just says what all Republicans truly believe so why dont they just admit it?
I will never understand how so called Republican politicians in Vermont will go out of there way to condemn every word and action of President Trump but will not call out their Democratic party colleagues on the devastating policies that have wreaked havoc on the economy and social fabric of this state. Decades of cowardly appeasement to the leftist ideologues have left this state a financial basket case with a raging heroin epidemic, untreated sewage flowing into the waterways and roads that are barely passable. These problems were not caused by Trump or Deborah Billado. They were caused by Vermonters and the weak kneed politicians we insist on electing.
For some of us who have voted as Independents, such a diatribe makes it very difficult even to think of voting for Republicans, many of whom have recast themselves as whatever it is that Trump is. The other side of the aisle may have its problems, but it doesn’t seem to be using race-hatred and fear-mongering as political tools. I would not vote for the Party of Christ Himself, if it used this vile rhetoric. I very much miss John McCain and his ilk. Even closer to home, I miss Jim Jeffords.
This demeaning headline and the article content represent unfair non-factual reporting. The reporter pieced together words out of context from the Republican Chairs message together as if one thought. He used that to claim she derided the presidents critics and in that way, thus making his false point that she called all who opposed President Trump, left wing hatemongers. SHE DID NOT SAY THAT!
In using the word hatemonger, she was speaking about those who after Donald Trumps election called for his assassination. There cannot be strong enough words to describe such people. Few would disagree with that and here is exactly what she said and the only place where she used the word hatemonger and it is in the same sentence describing those who called for the Presidents assassination: Who could have imagined the anger, violence and insanity, acted out by many left-wing hatemongers calling even for his assassination because their candidate lost? Space will not allow me to list all the hateful things said and done to this President and his family. She was speaking of the well documented threats and disgusting acts by people who could not stand the fact that Donald Trump was elected. That is what she was talking about and it is sad that anyone would try to twist that into something that it is not.
There is no question that the Chair of the Vermont Republican Party criticized those opponents of the President and rightly so. It is widely known that the resistance will oppose this President in any and all things he does for America because and just because they cannot accept the result, even to this day, of his election and that Hillary Clinton lost. All Americans should criticize such people, especially the Democrat Congress, that will not work with the President and Senate to fix matters like the crisis on the southern border or other critical matters facing America and just because they loathe Donald Trump.
The testimony of Mueller before Congress revealed just what she said it did and what honest observer could say that was not a valid point?
Her job is to support all candidates, statewide and national and just because Seven Days wishes to fan the flames of differences in the Vermont Republican Party it cannot lessen her dedication to represent all Republicans fairly and she does that. One article supporting the President does not mean she isnt focused on Vermont and all that needs to be done to fix it because of the poor governance of the Democrat/Progressive super-majority. She has and will continue doing that, but she will also point to unfairness in the treatment of any Republican at any level.
It is sad that it is not even worth voting in VT. What we get is the Democratic presidential candidate and Bernie, Patrick and Peter.
Some members of the Vermont Republican Party like Scott, Benning, Scheuermann and Parent have been practicing a policy of appeasement to Vermont’s liberal left in the hopes that, somehow, this will help them slide into their positions unnoticed. As we watch the current Montpelier policies run our state off the rails with plenty of examples such as reduced credit rating, people fleeing the state along with businesses, crumbling roads, unaffordable healthcare and raw sewage dumps into our drinking water, I believe it’s time for Republicans to offer a real choice and put some grownups back in charge…
At a memorial service for a 97 year old friend this past weekend we sang “America the Beautiful”. Here are some lyrics that once again touched me:
“America, America,
God mend thy every flaw
Confirm thy soul in self control
And liberty in law”
and
“O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife
Who mere themselves their country loved
And mercy more than life!”
and finally,
“America, America
God shed his grace on thee
And crown they good with brotherhood
From sea to shinning sea”
Surely we can all do better in trying to live up to our own and our nation’s promise and ideals.
Many like myself, who have supported Democrats, miss Republicans like Jim Jeffords and George Aiken, because they represented a party that cared deeply about ALL Americans, not just Republican Americans. It is not a democracy anymore when one party despises and refuses to talk to or work with the other party as Republicans have been doing in Congress for more than a decade.
She is a nutcase plain and simple for believing all of Trump’s lies and making the country look stupid!!
My post referring to tRumpsm as nazism was pulled by SevenDays. I guess we are not allowed to discuss nazism in this publication. Shame on you. I am sure you’ll pull this post too.
Hi!
While we welcome civil discussion, our comment guidelines state: “Sweeping generalizations of any group or individual based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or age wont be tolerated. Neither will comparisons to Nazis.”
You can find our full comment guidelines here: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/Commen…
Not being allowed to discuss nazis…enables nazism. SevenDays “guidelines” forbid discussion of nazis and nazism so clearly SevenDays is now in the business of enabling nazis. Shame on you!!
Thank you for leaving my posts up.
We have to be able to discuss the very real connections between the republican party and the rise of fascism in the US. To disallow that discussion is a great disservice to the community and to the integrity of the publication.
Yes it’s uncomfortable, and yes some folks will say that there is no connection, but what we are seeing in this country is a very real increase in actual nazis marching under swastikas in US cities. Burlington has seen nazi hate graffiti in the last few months.
When I see a republican attempting to increase their sphere of influence, with all of the very real nazification we see going on under tRump, I feel obliged to speak out about what I see. Agree or disagree, mileage may vary.
Miss English clearly does not understand the methods used by the Nazis to come to power in post W.W. I Germany, to suggest that comparisons should not be made. An analysis of such horrific and dupplicate tactics is NOT the same as a “Sweeping Generalisation,” Miss English. One should not make sweeping generalizations; that is correct. But one should also not enable those sympathetic to blatant, Nazi-style tactics, continuing to enable such ugly a destructive ideas.
Good for you, Deb. The Republicans picked Trump, and America elected him…the economy is booming.
Ok student do we have an illustration of slanted editorialization here? Screeinteresting word, right? Do you think it would be used to describe Senator Sanders frequent tirades (theres another one) against? Well, most anything that smacks of citizens involved in the pursuit of happiness outside government help. More broadly, one might even wonder whether strikingly similar scree pieces from the Dem./Prog./Soc. side would even get coverage. Perhaps our press is not as evenhanded as they profess.
Who CAN’T buy Trump? Saudi and US businessmen rent rooms at his hotels in quantity and then don’t use them. The Chinese government gives the Trumps all kinds of trademarks and other business concessions. The Trump campaign pays the Trump businesses for campaign-related expenses. And Trump still won’t release his tax returns so no one knows the full extent of his frauds and misdeeds. A man of integrity? NO WAY!
She speaks the truth and the Party R’s don’t like it,,,,,,,,Joe Benning is the mouth piece for Phil Scott and his group of Trump Haters. Heidi Scheurmann is a no show to all Republican meetings, and his a disgrace to her base like Phil Scott is. Heidi only won by 70 votes last election cycle I will work to see her gone this time! She’s a fake.
@William McKern
The question is not who can buy Trump. The question is who hasn’t bought Trump!
“Joe Benning is the mouth piece for Phil Scott and his group of Trump Haters.”
Good for Joe and Phil. Reasonable Republicans should hate Trump. He is not even a Republican.
“Heidi Scheurmann is a no show to all Republican meetings, and his a disgrace to her base like Phil Scott is. Heidi only won by 70 votes last election cycle I will work to see her gone this time! She’s a fake.”
She’s one of the few pro-business people in the Legislature. If you fight Republican legislators from the Right because they’re not Trump-crazies like you, you will only succeed in eliminating ALL of the few remaining Republicans you have in the Vermont legislature and the Democrats and Progressives will thank you. The Republicans you fight will be replaced by Democrats, making Vermont even more of a one-party state than it is now. Congratulations to the Vermont Republicans’ knack for total self-destruction in a liberal state. Circular firing squad, much?
I hate to tell you folks, but the Trump Party is the Republican Party. In the pocket of Russia, racist, sexist, homophobic, crude, wreckless, unchristian and with fascist ideals. I left the Republican Party decades ago when Ronald Reagan started this crap. Donald Trump is the Republican Party and they say “love it or leave it”. You got your engraved invitation. What are you waiting for? The smell is much better away from their rotting corpse.
VT GOP is a fucking joke. Let her spew toxic shit and watch how fast she finds herself out of a job.
I never read about how St. Patrick Leahy got his name “Leaky Leahy”, or how “feel the Bern” Bernie Sanders rants about the evil rich while not addressing his fortunes and lack of charity to those less fortunate (yes, he is in the 1%).
Gov Phil “flipflop” Scott doesn’t speak for the GOP, he can’t be trusted by his words either but you only read about how great he is when he touts the liberal left line.
Nope, SevenDays is just like the rest of Vermont local and national politburo (MSM / Fake News) reporting I stopped reading or watching long ago.
It is too bad they don’t have enough integrity to disclose their biases in each headline or footnote…
It is hilarious to me that some commenters (and Billado herself) think that her words are actually helpful to Vermont Republicans.
I voted for Phil Scott, like I voted for Jim Douglas and James Jeffords. I will still vote for sane republicans for balance, which Vermont sorely needs. But after Billado’s absurd and ugly rant, any GOP candidate who comes to my door is going to have to make it extremely clear without any prompting from me that they are of the sane variety, the Scott Douglas Jeffords variety or they will be sent packing with the message that I am not voting for the ugly variety of republicans. Billado has put the Vermont GOP in an even deeper hole, which is remarkable political malpractice. I predict that the voters will punish the Vermont GOP in 2020. She already lost them 12 seats in the house in 2018. What a prize she is!
It is clear from reading polls that 85% of GOP voters are trump republicans. That is a party I will not support and I wish its demise in that form.
Someday, lets hope soon, trump will be in the rear view mirror and history will not see him as Billado and GOP voters see him. History will see him as the Georges, that is, Conway, Romney, and Will see him, as a pathetic moral and intellectual disgrace to his office.