Ex-gov blasts Baker on budget blame: ‘Sooner or later, they’re going to take responsibility’
PHILADELPHIA — Former Gov. Deval Patrick couldn’t resist tweaking Gov. Charlie Baker on the budget after addressing Bay State delegates at a breakfast session yesterday.
“You know, look, I’ve been biting my tongue for some time now on that sort of thing,” said Patrick when asked by reporters about Baker blaming Patrick for budget deficits shortly after taking over the State House. “It’s what you hear. They’ve been in office now for whatever it is, a year and half now. Sooner or later, they’re going to take responsibility for the offices and responsibilities that they sought.”
Patrick, now an executive at Bain Capital, left Beacon Hill in 2015 after two terms.
In his address to the Massachusetts Democratic National Convention delegation, he blasted Republicans for what he described as feigned outrage about Donald Trump’s racially charged rhetoric.
“I will say I’m not particularly surprised that the Republicans chose the nominee they did,” said Patrick. “What surprises me a little bit is the kind of pearl-clutching that some in the establishment on the Republican side have been doing when their nominee is just saying out loud what they have been saying in code for many, many years.”
But asked whether Baker himself should do more to denounce Trump, Patrick would only say: “You’d have to ask Gov. Baker those questions.”