By Michael Catarevas
WESTPORT – President-elect Donald J. Trump’s supreme skill — the ability to dominate most any discourse anywhere — was on full display Thursday at Town Hall.
In an event hosted by the Democratic Town Committee and billed as a ‘community conversation” with state Attorney General William Tong, topics varied from immigration to climate change to women’s rights, but there was no doubt what (and who) was front and center on most everyone’s mind.
Before about 40 attendees, Tong spent the first few minutes of the 45-minute session admitting that it was a depressing time to be a Democrat in this country.
“Seven years ago, I was asking for your support to be part of a firewall against the then president, and here we are again,” said Tong, a Stamford Democrat first elected to state’s top legal post in 2018. “I know a lot of people are concerned, afraid and scared. I’m scared too. Let’s just acknowledge that the last few days haven’t made it any better.
“As the attorney general of this state, let me also just express that I don’t have any good answers for what happened. So if anybody’s expecting me to figure it all out, I’m just as stunned as many of you are,” he added.
Tong admitted that he misjudged the result of the presidential election, in which Trump handily defeated Kamala Harris.
“I thought that it was all heading in the right direction, that we had the right candidate, the right message,” he said. “I was wrong, and it’s going to take a long time to figure out. I don’t think it’s just one thing. It’s a number of causes. But speaking as a Democrat, it feels very much like we were out of position, and it’ll take some time to unpack all of that and to figure out what happened.”
“I know a lot of people are concerned, afraid and scared. I’m scared too. Let’s just acknowledge that the last few days haven’t made it any better.”
Connecticut’s 25th attorney general since the office was established in 1897, Tong is currently serving his second term. Likening what lies ahead for the many Democrats in Connecticut and other states to a lengthy skirmish, he noted that even Trump and his appointees likely are not sure exactly how and when to proceed with their agendas.
“I don’t even think the former and future president knows,” he said. “I can only tell you that we expect it to be strong and aggressive and to push the limits of the law, and we’re ready for most of the contingencies, or all the contingencies, that we can forecast. This is about protecting our communities and our residents.
“Before I open it up to questions, there’s a lot about how the state’s going to respond. There’s a lot of concern about how the federal government might come in and try to bully the state. And, of course, there are a lot of concerns and a lot of scared people in key communities that are important to all of us.
“So let me make it absolutely crystal clear, speaking as your attorney general. It is the policy of the state of Connecticut to respect, honor, protect and defend the rights of women and reproductive freedom, and the right to seek an abortion if you need one,” he vowed.
“It is the law in the state of Connecticut that we honor and protect and defend and respect the rights of immigrant communities here, including the undocumented, and protect and defend the people in the LGBTQ-plus community,” he said.
Tong was first asked about climate change.
“We’re going to fight as hard as we ever have to protect our climate,” he said. “I have a lawsuit against ExxonMobil for lying to us about climate change. I had a conference in New Haven about a month and a half ago on the crisis of plastics and plastic waste. California has already sued ExxonMobil over plastics, and I’m not there yet. But we’re investigating, and we’re going to be very aggressive. We’re going to continue to protect clean air and clean water. It’s not always on the front page of the paper, but one area in which Connecticut has been really aggressive is in defending the Clean Air Act.”
Regarding immigration and immigrants in Connecticut, an attendee asked what pro bono resources are available in case someone is at risk of deportation, or wants to at least know what their rights are.
“Number one, we don’t know how it’s going to go down,” Tong responded. “We know it’ll likely be aggressive, and hardly a day went by when I first became attorney general that I didn’t get a phone call about an undocumented person in a church or somewhere, and what do we do? That was bad, but I expect it to be 10 times that.
“I don’t defend individuals. I speak for the state of Connecticut. So you better have a telephone tree to figure out who gets called when and by whom, and make sure you have pro bono lawyers set up and ready to go.”
Women’s rights next took center stage, with Tong stressing that the laws in Connecticut are very strong with the codification of Roe v. Wade and the Reproductive Rights Defense Act.
“And I’m continuing my work against crisis pregnancy centers that lie to women who need access to reproductive healthcare,” he said. “The new hotline is a major new initiative to help people directly. If they try to pass a nationwide ban on abortion, I have said that I’ll be the first to sue.”
Westport Journal asked Tong whether he thought president-elect Trump, known to have a long memory, would hold a grudge against Connecticut going forward after having had an antagonistic relationship with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the state’s senior senator, during his first term.
Blumenthal had led an unsuccessful lawsuit against Trump concerning accepting gifts from foreign countries in 2019-20, with Trump claiming multiple times that Blumenthal misrepresented himself regarding service during the Vietnam war.
“No,” Tong said. “I think Trump’s got a complicated relationship with a lot of people, including J.D. Vance, by the way. Senator Blumenthal is going to do his job. He was tough and effective as attorney general. He’s been tough and effective as a U.S. senator. No one’s going to get the puck by him.”
“I thought that it was all heading in the right direction, that we had the right candidate, the right message … Speaking as a Democrat, it feels very much like we were out of position, and it’ll take some time to unpack all of that and to figure out what happened.”
Finishing up, Tong again admitted that Democrats need to find out why the elections turned out so badly for them in most places, with even U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, whose 4th District includes Westport, having a tougher-than-usual re-election this year.
“Something’s happening out there, folks,” he said. “People are really angry, and we have to listen. [Republican] Michael Goldstein got a heck of a lot of votes against Himes, and that is not a criticism of Jim. He’s one of the best members of Congress in this country and one of the smartest in public service.
“But something’s happening. You saw it out there. We have to win elections. We have to figure out why we’re out of position with the message that we think is honorable and that serves people and is about prioritizing families and helping people with the cost of living and protecting their fundamental rights and liberties. A lot of people aren’t hearing it. I don’t know why yet.”
Michael Catarevas is a freelance writer.
The proud Trump supporters and enablers on the RTM, on the Board of Education, and in Town Hall—elected and barely elected—deserve extra scrutiny in the coming months. In 2025, maybe Westport can begin to eradicate the stupidity, cruelty, arrogance, and secrecy that infect so much of town.
As a first-generation immigrant, a woman, a mother to three daughters, I am not scared of Trump administration which stands for law and order and common sense.
I am scared of people like Mr. Thong who pose danger to our communities by releasing criminals, accepting drug dealers, child abusers and traffickers, decriminalizing crimes, destroying education, promoting abortions to our children as if such are just a method of contraception and not a serious medical procedure which can leave young women unable to conceive and bear children, promoting gross and irreversible bodily mutilations to our children, promoting sex with adults to them, and so on, and so on.
Mr. Thong and alike are a sheep in wolf’s clothing and only fools can fall for their agenda.
Lastly, a comment above mine is just another proof of how mentally challenged, aggressive and criminal “democratic” cult followers are.
If he wants to “eradicate stupidity, cruelty, arrogance, and secrecy”, he should start with himself instead of harassing and threatening fellow Westport residents.
His name is Tong, not Thong, but superfunny! Don’t you have some books to ban or some residents to libel?
Maybe just the primers on homosexual practices placed in the school libraries. If we were to ban, that would be an excellent place to start. Feel free, however, to peruse these at bookstores near you.
Would you want your three daughters to be in the company Matt Gaetz, Trump’s choice for Attorney General and accused child sex trafficker?
I hope you and your family survive Trump’s deportation efforts.
She and her family are not illegal immigrants. Our country has always had a system for welcoming legal immigrants. When will democrats grasp the very obvious distinction between legal and illegal immigrants.
It’s weird that you are scared of LGBTQ people but seem to have no problems with sexual predators like Matt Gaetz.
I didn’t know you were so clued into Katerina’s immigration status.
Yes Chris, I know Katerina so actually I am aware of that fact.
i see 15 (one appears to be sound asleep) not 40
I know some people have tiny imaginations, but there are other auditorium seats that aren’t in the photo. Maybe that’s a clue to this vexing mystery.
Sorry you cannot detect a sparsely attended meeting and what may have been biased reporting. I have a yearning for accuracy in news reporting no matter the message
Gotta agree with Michael about the attendance but his “what may have been biased reporting” aside is the kind of idiocy that we get from libertarians.
Michael, you should have just left it at the attendance. Just curious how many successful libertarian governments that we have seen in the history of the universe? I’m pretty sure that answer is “zero.”
The country (minus Connecticut. and a few other bastions of leftism) has rejected DEI, CRT, hating on police, hating on America, etc. resoundingly. Even many reliably left leaning areas are not so reliable for the left anymore. Sanity is returning to our country. I hope Connecticut will soon see the light as well and be restored to the safe and prosperous state it was before it was taken over by the far left. I wholeheartedly agree with Katerina.
Thomas Gray: “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.”
Yikes !
It’s time to understand that republicans are not interested in being labeled “garbage” or facists. When they are the only smart guys in the room.
It would appear that president elect Trump has run a convincing campaign.
Popular vote also. It was a landslide .
And I can only pray he’s been left with something to work with so that in 4 years JDVance will be our following president.
Hopefully through 2032.
Our country cannot afford the socialism afoot ! This far left garbage is not sustainable.
As someone expected to foot the bill for the socialism. I’m not ok with it.
I pay far more than my fair share.
As do others.
I’ve watched my kids lives get 💩upon by affirmative action.
I pay my kids college fees.. no freebies for me.
No student loan paybacks. None for me.. but I fund the Biden ones.. sorry ! Enough
Trump is not perfect. None of them ever are. Politics breeds snakes.
But he’s 10x better than Kamala.
That is why he WON BY A LANDSLIDE.
Thank god we will be unburdened by what has been.
I guess your money is more important than Trump’s rapey racism. All my best to your employees at Nômade. You want a bus to ferry them safely to an outlying parking lot, but you want taxpayers to pay for it? But that’s not socialism, because you singlehandedly revived Main Street and saved it from extinction? Do I have that right? Sometimes it’s hard to parse your right-wing ramblings.
Tom and Chris, I have given you this advice in the past which you did not take, even though it is in your interest to do so. Quit while you’re not ahead.
Sounds vaguely threatening, Sharon. But when you’re right, you’re right. Sometimes I’ll get high on meth or crack or fentanyl and go to the adult bookstore with a bottle of Barolo. (As you know, it’s what Dems do!) Just yesterday, in fact, I was in the toy aisle and it hit me: “What if Sharon has been right all along?” I have an appointment with a professional this week.
Wow, threatening? My, haven’t you been living a sheltered life! You humiliate yourself with every nasty, snarky comment you make. Like all lefty little snowflakes, you melt under any criticism while throwing nasty bombs left and right. I have been right and you probably should keep that appointment. There’s no shame in seeking help.
Mary, Trump did not win in a landslide. At current count he has 50.1% of the popular vote. Hardly a landslide. The main thing that won the election for him was the massive right wing media machine and the willingness of his electorate to either believe his outlandish lies and incredible disinformation or pretend they believe them in order to get all those damn immigrants out of the country. But some of us are going to continue to shine the light on the truth. There are 2 things he campaigned on – getting rid of immigrants and fixing the economy. If he deports criminals who are undocumented than he is doing nothing more than every President has done. Obama deported more than any other recent President. If he starts massively deporting non criminal undocumented immigrants its going to be a massive hit to our economy. It will cost billions to to remove them plus the billions in lost tax revenue that they contribute to our economy – billions. Many industries would be heavily impacted – construction, hospitality, food. Prices will sky rocket. His second policy was to use tarrifs to fix the economy and yet every reputable economist explains how that will raise prices. It would interesting to see what it does to your business when he deports the contributing undocumented immigrants and adds tarrifs to your imports.
Our economy is not in a shambles and we do not have the rampant inflation he proclaims and his followers believe. Our unemployment is at record lows, financial markets have had record highs, our oil and gas production is at an all time high and our inflation has come way down since the disastrous pandemic Trump left Biden with and is it at historical averages in the 2% range. To say our inflation is at all time highs is just false. Pure fiction. Wage growth has outperformed inflation for 18 months – of Bidens presidency and we are expected to recover from the inflation of the pandemic in our paychecks by June. So in the spring next year don’t believe the economy has anything to do with Trump. It’s good now and will probably stay good for a short time. That is until he takes his promised actions and also hands all our state secrets over to Russia while he’s at it.
As of Reuters reporting today, Trump won the electoral college 312 to 226, the popular vote by millions and Republicans hold the House and the Senate. Despite the overwhelming advantage in media coverage for Democrats not Republicans (“massive right wing media machine”??) and Democrats vast outspending versus Republicans, this is the outcome. Rosy employment numbers were also overwhelmingly for immigrants and government workers, not private sector American born citizens. Also claiming that inflation is not a problem is as tone deaf for you as it proved to be for Harris/Walz. There are too many reasons you lost to list here (DEI, CRT, criminal and illegal alien coddling, inept international policies, etc, etc.) but keep doing and thinking whatever you want. Fortunately some people are starting to figure it out. BTW, maybe you shouldn’t remind everyone of Obama’s deportation record. They might start thinking he’s a racist.
Sharon, Trump is now down to 50% of the popular vote. That’s just not a landslide. There are 74 million people in the US that voted for Kamala. I’m not claiming anything about Inflation – its just the facts. It was 8% or so after the pandemic – the pandemic fueled by Trumps ineptness – as it was everywhere. Our economy has recovered faster than other developed countries. Again, just facts. We are around the historical average in the 2% range and we will continue to be for some time until Trump comes in and screws everything up.
Congratulations on your Trump win – you will be safe from wokeness but the country will fall apart in all really important areas. We will have an antisemitic, child molester, election denier who will be the attorney general, an insane anti-vaxxer in charge of our health, a Russian asset in charge of intelligence and a defense secretary who wants to get rid of top generals who aren’t loyal enough to Trump. We are moving faster every day to fasicsm and dictatorship and we will have no one to thank except you anti-woke and anti-diversity cult members.
Lauren, your “facts” have lost you an election in a definitive and dicisive way. The usual spewing of hatred and name calling only proves who the hater is and it is you.
Sharon, not so decisive… hes’ down to under 50% of the popular vote and one of the smallest margins in presidential history – 44th out of 51 last I heard. Hilary had a wider margin in the popular vote than he does now. Did you know that close to 90% of all black and jewish voters in the US (more for women/less for men) voted for Kamala? 90%. What does that tell you ?
Uh, they’re not very smart? Keep telling yourself that 312 to 226 is a squeaker. Plus the popular vote and both houses of Congress. And all done legitimately without illegals and dead people. What a joke.
Haha. It really is fun watching you lefties as your heads spin around like the girl in the Exorcist.( same influence, btw)
Why can’t Republicans write good sentences, tell decent jokes, use humor that’s not 50 years old, or say interesting things in interesting ways? Are you all so flat and affectless and boring? Fact-free, fun-free, thought-free. Do you talk yourself into sweet oblivion each night? Or is there a Scott Baio/James Woods/Kid Rock podcast you listen to?
From what I’ve seen so far you haven’t said anything interesting or witty. Only trite, tedious lefty crap that finally, no one is buying anymore
Tom ! Your ignorance knows no bounds.
Maybe you need to do a bit of your “social media” fact checking here.
First fact.
Nomade did single-handedly bring “back” Main Street.
Check that FACT.
And continues to do so.
Second fact.
I never suggested my staff be treated like second class citizens.
If this town wishes to legalize the residence zone land that imperial sits on, make it a peripheral parking lot for everyone to use, then they need to do an 8-24 proposal, etc… if successful and it is turned into a parking lot then I suggest it will be overflow and utilized by everyone.
I doubt any staff ( especially the staff furthest away) will use this lot.
You’d have to be desperate to do so.
I am a resident and own multiple businesses and I will NOT use the imperial lot.
I value my time, my life, and my vehicle too much to risk parking there. But you feel free to do so Tom.
Third fact
The businesses on Main Street pay to be there. They pay property taxes far higher than you do.
I suggest pound for pound or dollar for dollar the businesses pay plenty money to expect a shuttle bus laid on using “our” tax dollars. They more than cover a shuttle bus
Fourth fact
It was the merchants in the late 50’s who paid 80% of the cost to reclaim the land that is Parker Harding . They did it for extra parking.
Everyone was thrilled, especially residents who benefited and didn’t pay a dime for it.
Fifth fact
This country is divided by left and by right leaning thinkers.
Had the Democrat candidate not been an absolute inept moron who appealed to about 20% of the country but instead had been a more centrist Democrat I’m sure they would have been elected.. but instead sharp practice and the promise of socialism and a guaranteed flushing down the toilet of the American dream meant many “democrats “ voted for who represented their core values better.
The democrats screwed themselves and until they have a middle ground nominee will not be elected again. And rightly so.
The Biden Harris administration screwed the American people, and signs on, Trump won the POPULAR VOTE, the presidency, the republicans held the house and won back the senate.
I guess open borders, rampant handouts, causing massive inflation, racist policy along with the likes of student debt forgiveness just didn’t sit well with the hardworking folks of this country.
And possibly the garbage comment did not help.
You lost so get over it.
And America won.
I only wish Trump could go and take back the student debt the rest of us had to pay for.
I’ve had enough of paying close to 80% taxes…. ( blended- but accurate)
I’m not working hard to pay for every Tom dick and Harry to be handed my hard earned money.
I believe America agrees with me.
Here we go again.
Holy smokes! That is a serious word salad right there.
You single-handedly brought back Main Street? Wow.
Do you think bad businesspersons who can’t pay back their debts should be held to the same standards as people who are trying to improve themselves through an education?