Mayor: GOP chair ‘racist’

Heated social media exchanges prompted by immigration debate

MIDDLETOWN — Neither side is backing down in an angry clash that saw Mayor Dan Drew call William Wilson, chairman of the Republican Town Committee, “a racist.”

The incident came in the wake of two incidents: The first in which White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her party were asked to leave a Lexington, Va., restaurant, and a second incident in which Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was confronted by protesters in a Mexican restaurant in Washington.

It also comes against the background of the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy that has led to the separation and detention of migrant children. During a telephone conversation Monday afternoon, Wilson appeared still to be troubled at being called a racist.

Wilson, who has been party chairman for the past three years, said he grew up in sections of the city with blacks and Hispanics, but where “we never saw color.”

For his part, Drew said he used the term after Wilson made “derogatory remarks about large segments of the city.”

It is Wilson’s behavior and not his comment that is the real issue, Drew said Monday afternoon. For example, a meme Wilson posted on social media that Drew said he found to be racist.

“If he doesn’t want to be called a racist then he shouldn’t say disgusting things about segments of this community,” Drew said.

Drew said Wilson supports the zero-tolerance policy, which the mayor described as both “indefensible” and having been ruled “unconstitutional” by a federal judge in San Diego.

Drew defended the public shaming of Trump administration officials, which led Wilson to ask via social media, “So would you be happy if this was happening to you and your family?”

In response, Drew attacked locking up migrant children, adding, “I’ll hold off on taking any lectures from openly racist people. And, yes, I mean you, Bill.”

Wilson said he had initially

posted a picture of a child giving President Trump a one-finger salute with the caption “Not My President,” and another photo of the president with the caption “Not My Resident.”

And over it all, the headline “Love Him or Hate Him: You Decide.”

Wilson said Drew lifted the pictures of “Not My Resident” and used it on Drew’s Facebook page.

Wilson and Drew and their supporters went back and forth on social media.

Wilson said he has received support from both African Americans and Hispanics following the mayor’s denunciation of him as a racist.

But he said Drew has refused to apologize for the comment.

“My feeling is that you can disagree with anyone — that’s what makes America great. But when it devolves into name calling, to me, that means you’ve lost the argument. My issue is you don’t treat people poorly unless you want to be treated the same way,” Wilson said.

Wilson said his only explanation for Drew’s comment is “He’s trying to draw on another base,” in an effort to pursue higher office.

Sebastian Giuliano, the former mayor and now minority leader of the Common Council, said he was both surprised and disappointed Drew had chosen to use that kind of language.

“Billy’s pretty much an ‘Average Joe’ — or, an ‘Average Bill,’” and, as a lifelong resident of the city, he is an embodiment of many of the residents who live in Middletown, Giuliano said.

“To call him a racist — if that’s the standard, to say that about Billy, who lives in Dan’s city, so is that what the mayor thinks of his population?” Giuliano said. “He has his quirks, but I don’t think the first thing that pops into your head when you hear his name is ‘racist.’

Giuliano said he was also disappointed the term “racist” has come to be used so often of late “that it’s losing it’s impact.”

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