Scott Hamann's anti-Trump rant gets him tossed off legislative committees (Maine Democrat)

PORTLAND — Rep. Scott Hamann, D-South Portland, has been removed from two legislative committees because of statements he made online that suggested he would harm President Donald Trump if he got close enough.

Three days after images of a profane Facebook post that Hamann wrote began to circulate online, House Speaker Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, said she has removed Hamann from his seats on the Health and Human Services Committee and the Marijuana Legalization Implementation Committee.

In the post, Hamann, 36, called the president a “joke,” a “rapist” and a criminal, seethed against his supporters and Republicans more generally and said Trump is unlikely to serve his full four-year term, “especially if I ever get within 10 feet of that pussy.”

In a statement, Gideon said the three-term lawmaker’s comments were “inexcusable and unacceptable” and said his removal from the committees should stand as a lesson to other members of state government.

“I hope this consequence sends a clear signal to all members of the House of Representatives that they are expected to conduct themselves with respect at all times and in all media,” Gideon said.

Hamann did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday but previously said he regretted the statements. They were part of an “aggressively sarcastic … Facebook exchange with a childhood friend,” he said.

Rep. Aaron Frey, D-Bangor, will replace Hamann on the Marijuana Legalization Implementation committee. Hamann will be replaced on the Health and Human Services Committee by Joyce McCreight, D-Harpswell, who is in turn stepping down from the Taxation Committee, where she is being replaced by Denise Tepler, D-Topsham.

Gideon’s announcement of the committee shakeup follows bipartisan condemnation of Hamann’s comments, which were picked up by national media, including right-leaning outlets, such as FOX News and Breitbart, but also more mainstream news organizations, such as Reuters and The Boston Globe.

Hamann’s comments were decried by the heads of Maine’s Republican and Democratic parties and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins. The state GOP called for his resignation.

Maine’s House Democratic leadership had remained silent on the issue before Gideon’s Friday morning announcement. On Thursday, Assistant House Minority Leader Ellie Espling, R-New Gloucester, sent Gideon a letter asking what she was doing to address the matter.

Hamann is the second Maine lawmaker in recent years to lose a committee seat after running his mouth online. In 2015, Sen. Mike Willette, R-Presque Isle, resigned from his co-chairmanship of the Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee following controversy caused by his inflammatory Facebook posts about President Barack Obama.

The Good Shepherd Food Bank, where Hamann works as a project manager, said in a statement that the lawmaker’s comments “in no way reflect the views or values” of the organization.

Hamann said in a Thursday email that he is continuing to work for the food bank but that he had taken most of the week off “to address this distraction.”

Hamann, 36, seethed w/ hatred against Trump and his supporters, and suggested Trump voters, and Republicans generally, are all morons while he and the rest of the Hillary cabal are the most "intelligent." Hamann threatened Trump and suggested "he is unlikely to serve his full four-year term, especially if I ever get within 10 feet of that pussy.” He called the president a “joke,” a “rapist” and a criminal.

The committee dump is not enough. This guy needs a bigger and better lesson.

It is entirely possible that Hamann may have committed federal and state offenses, including, but not limited to:

<><> Title 18 U.S.C. §1341, Mail Fraud, 18 U.S.C.§1001, Presenting a False Document to an Agent of the US Government for funding (may involve several felonies and could include forgery);

<><> 18 U.S.C.§1027 False statements and concealment of facts in relation to funding documents required by ERISA enacted 1974 and other possible offenses including civil and/or criminal RICO violations.

<><> 18 U.S.C. §§1961-68 (RICO Act)18 U.S.C. §1001 (making false Statements to Agents of the US Government regarding official matters),

<><> 18 U.S.C. §241(Conspiracies Against Civil Rights). Violation of Civil Rights under Color of law and conspiracy. Conspiring with others to violate Pres Trump's 1st and 4th amendment rights.

<><> Possibly full investigations centering on RICO conspiracies under 18 U.S.C. §1962(c) could be warranted because (1) the persons (2) were employed by or associated with a state/federally funded enterprise (3) that engaged in or affected interstate commerce and that (4) the persons operated or managed the enterprise (5) through a “pattern” (6) of racketeering activity, and (7) the taxpayers were injured by reason of the “pattern” of racketeering activity.

<><> Alleged Offenses could include Violation of Rights – which prohibits in relevant part, “two or more persons (from conspiring) to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District

<><> Title 18 U.S.C. §2 41 – Conspiracy Against Constitutional mandates in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of having so exercised the same . . .” See, 18 U.S.C. §241.

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Taxpayers demand the following agencies commence investigations of liberal campus activities at once:

<><> FBI — Wire Fraud Division

<><> IRS-Fraud Unit <><> Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General,

<><> Department of Commerce’s Office of Inspector General.

<><> DOJ’s Criminal Division— Public Integrity Section

<><> DOJ Criminal Division—Organized Crime and Gang Section.

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ACTION NOW-—Contact your Representative and Senators
Capitol Switchboard 1-866-220-0044

Call President Trump---- Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414

TALKING POINTS: (A) taxpayers demand leftists be prosecuted. (B) sever all public funds, including federal funds to these criminal groups.

So Jake Bleiberg of the Bangor Daily News thinks that The Boston Globe is a more ‘mainstream’ news organization, while Fox News is not ‘mainstream’ because it is ‘right-leaning’.

Does he really not understand that The Boston Globe, once owned by the notoriously-left-wing New York Times, is still a ‘left-leaning’ news outlet?

If not, then it’s a pretty damning indictment of Jake Bleiberg and his unsuitability to be a ‘journalist’.

On the other hand, if he is aware of the leftist bias that pervades the news coverage emanating from The Boston Globe, but ignores that and instead labels them as ‘mainstream’ because he intentionally wants to frame his writing within the childish “leftism=good, right-wing=bad’ trope, then it is also a damning indictment of Jake Bleiberg and his unsuitability to be employed as a ‘journalist’.

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