Hughes accuses Trentonian of ‘misinformation’ over MCCC vax site closure
TRENTON >> Gee willikers, Factman, they’ve got me surrounded.
Sensing bad news closing in around him, Democratic powerbroker Brian Hughes pulled out the played-out “misinformation” card.
In a Wednesday letter addressed to Mercer County mayors, the embattled county executive accused The Trentonian of misleading residents about the imminent closure of a county-run vaccination site at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor.
Despite getting more than $71 million in federal aid, the county declined a proposal for as little as $26,000 to keep the vaccination site running at the campus through August after it hosted the clinic pro bono for months, The Trentonian has learned.
“We face the challenge of misinformation, some of which can be potentially harmful or confusing to our residents,” Hughes wrote, referencing The Trentonian’s story about the anticipated ceasing of operations at MCCC.
County officials and MCCC Board of Trustees Chairman Mark Madsen, a Hughes friend and appointee, claimed it was always their intent to wind up the vax site by May 8 because they’d no longer have student nurses to continue administering does for free.
But that’s contradicted by MCCC President Jianping Wang’s April 9 email in which she confirmed that the college sent the Hughes administration a proposal to keep the vax site alive as New Jersey extended eligibility to more residents.
The penny-pinching county decided to go in another direction.
“Mercer County is transitioning its vaccination site from the college campus to the skating rink in the adjacent Mercer County Park, and the relocation will be seamless and without interruption,” Hughes wrote.
County flack Julie Willmot, a former assistant news editor at the Times of Trenton reporter, doubled down on the county executive’s barb when asked why he was peddling false narratives about fake news — a epithet for the media popularized by ex-POTUS Donald Trump and deployed against The Trentonian by friendly neighbor, Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora.
“The story misleads people into believing there would be no vaccination site near them, when in fact plans were already underway to move the clinic from the campus to the park, less than a mile away,” Willmot wrote. “To misrepresent the county’s intention and needlessly confuse people about the county’s vaccination plan can potentially cause harm.”
The Trentonian accurately reported that the county was considering two sites: Princeton University and the skating rink — which was relayed by Democratic leaders in the county.
East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov told The Trentonian in a statement that Princeton University was being considered as an alternative site.
That tidbit came during discussions that Mironov said she had with Hughes’ camp, which has been under fire for not being transparent with the public about county business.
The crash-prone Hughes has dominated headlines after it came to light recently that he had three encounters with cops since 2017 — including a hitand-run in Princeton.
He attributed a more recent June 2020 interaction with Pennsylvania State Police, in which he told a trooper he abandoned his county vehicle to get gas while involved in a road race in Paris, France — to an adverse reaction to Trileptal.
He has taken the prescription drug for at least a decade to treat trigeminal neuralgia, a rare nerve disorder that causes shooting facial pain.
The trooper’s handling of the call is being investigated internally after he arranged with the executive’s chief of staff, Kelly Ganges, to allow the county car to be picked up.
It is unclear if the cop knew of Hughes’ prominence in New Jersey, as the son of former Gov. Richard J. Hughes, who also served as chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Democrats on the Mercer County Board of Commissioners threatened to summon Hughes to their meeting over the driving revelations, which they only learned about from The Trentonian.
He voluntarily showed up to their virtual meeting to discuss his driving escapades.
The Hughes administration also caught heat for hiding from the public for more than two years how two Nigerian nationals fleeced the county out of $660,000.
They only acknowledged the theft after the newspaper asked about it last month.
In recent weeks, water-carriers for the fiveterm Hughes ratcheted up efforts to show he’s in control of county government — he’s now the Facebook face of Mercer County government — after members of the local GOP questioned his fitness and called on him to resign.
They’ve also cracked down on dissenters, with Hughes admitting he phoned the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office to rat on two detectives he believes leaked photos of his wrecked Ford Taurus to The Trentonian.
Willmot said Hughes “will continue to push for a greater vaccine allocation” for Mercer County.
The new rink site is expected to open on or before May 8, she added.