Even in a time of profound personal grief, I wish to add to my prior statement about what the Attorney General of Connecticut said to the people of this state. Some statements are so offensive to our democracy that a non-response would be acquiescence — and I will never acquiesce to such statements – no matter the source.
On Thursday, Connecticut’s Attorney General – allegedly “the People’s Lawyer”– stood at a podium and told the people of Connecticut that if they stand with the President, they are — his words — “disqualified from serving in office.” He said it twice, and it was directed at all Republicans.
Let every voter, of every party, hear that clearly: the state’s top law enforcement officer just declared that Americans are unfit to serve their neighbors simply because he may not agree with their politics.
That is not a Democratic idea nor a Republican idea. It is an authoritarian one. And he has shown his true colors as to where he stands on political discourse in this country. Let me remind him that it is the people who decide who is qualified to hold office — not the Attorney General, not any government official. A statement like that is a grave threat to the democratic principles he swore to uphold, and it promotes the very lawlessness he is sworn to prevent.
You cannot alienate half of the citizens you serve with a comment like that and still call yourself the people’s lawyer.
I am calling on the Attorney General to unconditionally apologize — today — to every Republican, every independent, and every unaffiliated citizen who gives their time to public service in this state. Their neighbors. Volunteers. Poll workers. Candidates who put their names forward because they love Connecticut.
He owes all of us an apology, and he owes it now.
And this is not an isolated outburst. This past April, Connecticut’s own utility regulators formally rebuked Attorney General Tong — in writing — for fomenting what they called “the disquieting deterioration of discourse.” When a state regulatory agency has to correct the Attorney General’s outrageous and ethically challenged conduct on the record, and he responds months later by declaring citizens disqualified over their politics to serve in government, that is a pattern — and it is the final reason, among many, that he is unfit to serve.
By his own standard, announced in his own words, William Tong has disqualified himself from a third term as Attorney General of Connecticut. He is the Attorney Agitator not the Attorney General.
My allegiance is to the people of Connecticut, all of them.
The Attorney General must apologize, and that comment represents the final straw wherein he has forfeited the privilege to serve as “The People’s Lawyer.
The people of this state deserve far better than what they heard yesterday.
From John Bolton:
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