These same questions came up in the context of another bitterly contested presidential election in which Donald Trump’s name had been on the ballot. The questions then involved the trustworthiness of the FBI in getting to the root of the since-debunked Russian collusion scandal after some of the texts between agent Peter Strzok and paramour Lisa Page were made public.
Now the figure in the spotlight is Democratic Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar. Tweets that she posted in 2016 and 2017 reveal an opposition to Trump as a presidential contender, which metamorphosed into a full-blown case of Trump Derangement Syndrome after he was elected.
A Trump presidency would significantly weaken the US, driving us into a lengthy recession @MoodysAnalytics @politico https://t.co/V5yE5IFjl5
— Kathy Boockvar (@KathyBoockvar) June 25, 2016
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Using the title 'President' before the word 'Trump' really demeans the office of the presidency…
— Kathy Boockvar (@KathyBoockvar) March 7, 2017
Here is an exchange between a reporter and Boockvar on the subject of whether she is fairly able to oversee the battle over votes that is taking place in her state. A transcript follows.
Reporter: Secretary, some tweets have surfaced, admittedly from a couple of years ago, your tweets, suggesting negative things about Donald Trump. What do you say to people who say you’re the person overseeing this election and you have clearly partisan views on the matter? What’s your response to that?
Kathy Boockvar: So, my response is — look, these were four years ago. And at the time, I was not in any administration, I was not in any public service. I was a private citizen, it was a personal Twitter account. And when I became secretary of state, I took an oath, Dennis, and took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Constitution of the United States. Partisan politics have no place in the Pennsylvania Department of State, or any county elections office for that matter. We work for voting rights and for effective election administration. And I can tell you that I will do everything in my power to make sure that every voter, every candidate, and every party have access to a fair, free, safe and secure election. And I don’t care what their background is, and I don’t care what my background is. That’s what we do at the Department of State.
Can the private citizen be totally divorced from the public official who has taken an oath? That’s a theoretical question that needs to be explored in more leisurely times. Right now the clock is ticking, and the future of the nation depends on getting this election right. Boockvar should step aside for the time being.
