Gunman in custody after rampage leaves DC Metro worker dead
February 01, 2023
For customer support issues contact
support@rawstory.com. Report typos and corrections to
corrections@rawstory.com.
Stories Chosen For You
Every queer person knows what it’s like to be stuck at a holiday dinner next to someone who makes us cringe when they speak.
Sometimes they don’t say anything outright offensive — nothing that would get bleeped on network television — but often what comes out of their mouths represents a relic of a more troubling time for us.
That’s the feeling I get reading Jeff Brindle’s emails.
Brindle is the executive director of the Election Law Enforcement Commission, which is tasked with keeping an eye on politicians and making sure they disclose their donors properly, don’t spend campaign cash illegally, and update the public on their finances.
He’s come under fire recently because of an email he sent to a staffer in October mocking National Coming Out Day. State officials said in a memo the New Jersey Monitor obtained this week that the email was a blatant violation of the state’s anti-discrimination policy, and Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration has made moves to oust Brindle over it.
When I first read it, I thought, well, I’d probably complain to someone if my boss sent me this, but I might be satisfied if they got a reminder about what’s appropriate to say in work emails. I don’t know if I’d push for them to be fired.
But Brindle didn’t keep his snark about the LGBTQ community confined to that one email, according to a batch obtained via the Open Public Records Act by CJ Griffin, a transparency advocate and attorney who has represented the New Jersey Monitor.
In June, state officials sent a staff-wide email noting it was Pride month and suggesting employees consider adding their pronouns to their email signature. Brindle forward to an unknown person with this comment: “Give me a break.”
To a staffer who shared a story about a gay pride stunt courtesy of Burger King in Austria, Brindle wrote, “Unbelievable.”
He shared a July story from conservative news site Town Hall about a trans woman who impregnated two inmates in New Jersey’s women’s prison. He wrote, “We truly are living through insane times.”
In July, Breitbart wrote about Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas — a transgender woman whose participation in women’s sports made her a nationwide target — not being named NCAA’s woman of the year. Brindle sent the link to a staffer. “Lia lost this one,” he wrote.
Other emails that contain links to news stories with no comment from Brindle reveal a fixation with queer folks. He shared a story on parents griping about a Pride celebration in their kids’ middle school; a Town Hall story about a trans woman who regrets transitioning and criticized gender-affirming health care; and a Breitbart story about a Pride month social media post from the U.S. Marine Corps.
I emailed Brindle asking him if the emails betray any personal animus toward the LGBTQ community. He did not respond.
I wrote last week about my opposition to Murphy’s move to force out Brindle by hijacking control of the Election Law Enforcement Commission (a bill under consideration by the Legislature would give Murphy the sole power to remove the current commissioners and replace them all). Nothing in Brindle’s emails makes me reconsider this, since I don’t think the governor should gain this power just to target one person.
But that doesn’t mean the commissioners shouldn’t examine Brindle’s behavior at work. If he’s using his work email to trade anti-LGBTQ stories with staffers, what does that mean about how he treats his subordinates from that community? What does it say about the overall environment of his office? Is the stuff he says out loud worse than what he commits to writing, in documents he knows can be publicly revealed?
And why are Brindle and other commission employees exchanging work emails during work hours about subjects irrelevant to their jobs, like transgender swimmers who live in another state or PR gimmicks by Burger King in Austria? Could this be why the commission’s investigations move at a glacial pace?
Griffin told me when she first heard about the National Coming Out Day email, it set off “alarm bells” and made her wonder whether there was more going on, “especially since it seemed unlikely that a single email would cause Murphy to demand a resignation.”
“I also doubted that his actions were just a ‘power grab.’ I always tell my clients to ‘OPRA the emails,’ so I did. As is often the case, transparency revealed that there is indeed more to the story,” Griffin said.
Brindle’s commissioners are holding a meeting next week to discuss the matter. Garden State Equality, the state’s LGBTQ rights group, is demanding Brindle resign, saying the emails reveal Brindle’s workplace “is steeped in a toxic brine of biases which has no place in a civilized society.”
“We are disgusted by his visible contempt for the LGBTQ community. This is even more shocking as it is spewed from his official government email account, which carries with it the imprimatur of an official government position,” the group’s statement reads.
One last thing, about the National Coming Out Day email. In that one, Brindle emailed a staffer in reference to an Oct. 11, 2022, email from state government noting that day was National Coming Out Day.
“Are you coming out?” Brindle wrote to the unidentified staffer. “No Lincoln or Washington‘s Birthday’s [sic] but we can celebrate national coming out day.”
But: We do celebrate Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays — it’s called Presidents Day. And Brindle, as a state employee, had a paid day off to commemorate it. He did not get one for National Coming Out Day.
New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com. Follow New Jersey Monitor on Facebook and Twitter.
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Bills introduced in the Florida Republican-controlled state House and Senate inspired by Gov. Ron DeSantis calling for "media accountability" that will make it easier to sue journalists have drawn the ire of the Americans for Prosperity, the conservative political advocacy group funded by billionaire businessman Charles Koch and his late brother David, The Intercept reported.
“AFP works to make it easier for all Americans to speak up and hold political leaders accountable,” a spokesperson for Americans for Prosperity told The Intercept in regards to its lobbying against the bills. “One of the ways we do that is protect people from frivolous lawsuits targeting their speech by making it possible for judges to quickly review and dismiss bogus cases aimed at silencing opponents.”
“While our focus on this bill was on addressing the sections that would undermine those hard-won reforms, if those sections are changed, we will be neutral on the bill but not supportive of it,” the spokesperson went on. “We do not support the other aspects of the bill that are in direct opposition to the First Amendment.”
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein points out, the AFP's position is notable since it endorsed DeSantis during his reelection campaign last year. The group also announced that it would oppose Donald Trump's 2024 run for the White House.
IN OTHER NEWS: Trump's posts are 'the utterings of an insane person': former RNC official
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which is also funded by the Kochs, has opposed the legislation as well.
“HB 991 and SB 1220 are in direct conflict with decades of Supreme Court precedent setting a high bar on what public figures need to prove to sustain a lawsuit alleging defamation,” Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director for FIRE, told The Intercept. “The bills would make it easier for public figures to intimidate their critics by threatening costly and time consuming litigation.”
Also criticizing the legislation are various conservative media figures, such as James Schwartzel, owner of the talk radio station 92.5 FOX News, which carries conservative pundits such as Sean Hannity and others. Schwartzel reportedly called the legislation “a death knell for American traditions of free speech,” adding that it would lead to “the death of conservative talk throughout the state of Florida.”
Read the full report over at The Intercept.
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Appearing on MSNBC's "Chris Jansing Reports," former Republican National Committee spokesperson Tim Miller claimed the inflammatory comments Donald Trump is aiming at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Truth Social are signs that he is becoming even more unbalanced by his legal woes.
On Thursday Trump unleashed a flood of attacks on the investigation into Trump's alleged hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels that culminated with the former president threatening "death and destruction" if he is indicted.
Speaking with host Jansing, Miller said that, if you read Trump's word's out loud anywhere, people within earshot would flee.
Beginning with "I think that he is venting," Miller told the host, "This is a deranged person. We can look at the politics but also just the reality for a second. If you were reading these bleats that he has been sending out for 24 hours out loud in a coffee shop, people would be running away from you and calling for the manager."
"These are the utterings of an insane person," he continued. "Not somebody that has the mental capacity to be president in 2024. I think that is important to say that clearly. I think it is a reflection he is both angered and upset about the possibility of these impending indictments. Also, sees the political benefit."
"This is a cunning guy," he admitted. "He might be a little deranged, but he is definitely cunning and he has this animal ability to know what is going to get his base riled up."
Earlier on MSNBC, "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough also called out Trump, stating, "But you read these tweets or whatever you call it on that failing platform, and this is a guy who, you're right, he's out of his mind scared. He is melting down. Now, he is threatening riots that will lead to death and destruction if he is charged with a misdemeanor."
Watch video below or at this link.
MSNBC 03 24 2023 13 01 41 youtu.be
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Copyright © 2023 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | Masthead | Privacy Policy | For corrections contact corrections@rawstory.com, for support contact support@rawstory.com.
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}