UPDATED: Harris Off the Rails. Compares Ganim Corruption Conviction to Plight of Child Refugees.
It was almost midnight on Tuesday when Av Harris, Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim’s spokesman, decided to let the mask slip. Ganim, who was convicted of public corruption in 2003 and sentenced to prison for nine years, is a victim. Harris posted a link to a newspaper article featuring a quote from Ganim calling Donald Trump’s family separation of refugees “immoral.”
Harris could have left it at that. The Connecticut Post article speaks for itself. Instead, Harris, a former public radio reporter, decided to give followers a startling glimpse of what he has come to believe about Ganim’s corrupt enterprise. “Leadership from a man who know what it’s like to be forcible separated from his children.” Do they not understand the difference between a mayor who with his minions stole millions from the public and child refugees from violent Central American nations who have been purposely tormented by a president determined to punish refugees? Has it come to this in the rewriting of Ganim’s crimes?
Ganim has been winning attention by poking Ned Lamont, his wealthy Democratic rival for the party’s nomination for governor, as out of touch with the experience and cares of average voters. Harris’ ill-considered post reminds us that Team Ganim lives in a far stranger place, a land of make believe.
Av Harris offers this response to the above and asked that be included here:
For anyone who has seen the ridiculous post by Kevin Rennie, let me respond this way. For the record, Joe was merely answering questions put to him by journalist Brian Lockhart. I thought it was an interesting perspective. That’s all. No way I was even comparing his felony conviction for corruption and incarceration to migrants and refugees being separated from their children at the Mexican border, which is criminally cruel and inhumane. And for the record, My mother grew up without cousins on either side of her family because both her father’s and mother’s parents and siblings were mercilessly forced into concentration camps and slaughtered during the Holocaust. I know how the trauma of genocide and displacement afflicts families for generations, and I’ve covered displaced persons in refugee camps as a journalist. I’m very aware of the difference. And I have NEVER said Joe was a victim. He alone was responsible for his conviction and his incarceration. Which he has said repeatedly and apologized for repeatedly.