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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 !
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
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!
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?
It sounds like she is supporting the Trump party, not the Republican party. There is a stark difference. We miss you, Jim Jeffords.