Navy File Leak Shakes NJ Governor’s Race

Naval file leak really mixes up the New Jersey governor's race. According to the New York Times, New Jersey governor's race just turned into a fight over privacy, integrity, and power. Democrat Mickey Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, says the Trump administration improperly released her largely unredacted military personnel file to an ally of Republican Jack Cittarelli. He's the Republican nominee for governor. The National Archives called the disclosure a really egregious error. Oops. And opened an investigation. Cheryl says she was barred from walking at the Naval Academy's 1994 graduation because, as she put it, I didn't turn in some of my classmates. She still graduated, was commissioned as an officer, and served nearly 10 years, earning multiple commendations. She calls the records released by no means an accident. Citarelli's team denies wrongdoing and demands complete, complete transparency, with strategist Chris Russell arguing voters deserve to see more. With polls tightening and only a month ago, this contest is now a referendum on campaign tactics as much as policy. One fact is not in dispute. Private data should never be released. Okay, what's the real message here? The message is dirty tricks are alive and well in New Jersey and coming out of this Washington administration to release private files, including Social Security numbers, about a candidate running for governor and then saying, oops, don't know how that happened. It's funny. The Epstein files never get released accidentally, but if you're a Democratic candidate for high office, yeah, those flow like water. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. So here's the central issue. It's a very close race. It could go either way. And Republicans are especially excited about the possibility of winning New Jersey because it's typically a Democratic state. If Republicans can win a place like New Jersey, it does not look good for the Democrats at the national level. So it's very exciting to a lot of people here in the United States. So here is the issue as I understand it. This woman who is the Democratic nominee, Mickey Sherrill, went to West Point, and West Point has an honor code that says if you cheat, you're banned, you get kicked out of the school, you certainly can't attend graduation, you're in violation of the honor code. And it says essentially, if you have even an inkling that anyone around you cheated, or if you see evidence of it and you don't instantly turn them in, you are now guilty of violating the ethics code, and you are unethical and you're a bad person. And we might not kick you out, but it's going to be shame on you. And you don't get to be a part of the graduation ceremony. So that apparently is what happened. There was some kind of a cheating scandal in the early 90s when this woman, Nikki Sherrill, was attending West Point. By all accounts, she was not cheating and I have no way of knowing, and frankly you don't either. Was she just said, hey, I heard a rumor so and so cheated and she's like, I don't want to hear about it. Or was she right there in class and saw the person cheating? And I don't know the specifics and if you think you do, probably you're just a partisan with an ax to grind. What is indisputable is she went on to an extraordinarily praiseworthy career in the military. She saved lives while she was still in college at West Point, went above and beyond the duty, beyond the call of duty. She had numerous commendations. And now the idea, I mean it reminds me very much of John Kerry, who was a war hero we had for President 2004. But the right wing Murdoch led media slime machine somehow convinced people like he was practically the draft dodger, when in fact it was George W. Bush who was the draft dodger. So we're once again seeing how the media can turn black to white and white to black. It's happening this way and it only seems to be happening one way, at least in this particular race. Now again, the National Archives admits this was an error, but it sure seems odd that violation of privacy can easily spill out from federal sources that where it's supposed to be confidential. But we don't see everything from the Epstein files spilling out because that apparently doesn't instantly help Republicans short term in a particular election. This is going to be investigated if this is a close election, and it appears to be, and if Democrat Mickey Sherrill loses, you can point your finger to this as perhaps the deciding reason. So once again it is this unelected cabal that we've heard about for so long actually coming, you know, coming to fruition, putting their thumb on the scales of electoral justice to favor one candidate over another, and it's frankly quite shameworthy.