Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony refuses to debate the other Democratic candidates ahead of the primary on Aug. 20.
Is it because he doesn’t want them to publicly challenge him about his criminal history that he went to great lengths to conceal from the public? When I say conceal, I really mean that he lied to voters, the media, and Gov. Ron DeSantis, who appointed him sheriff in 2019.
Maybe Tony doesn’t want them to bring up his admission about using LSD as a youth when he applied to the Tallahassee Police Department. It could be that he’s afraid to be asked why he didn’t tell the full story to the Coral Springs Police Department when he applied there.
He lied on official documents, which might make him uncomfortable if he had to explain it in public.
Maybe the sheriff is afraid he’ll be asked about reallocating money to the BSO Training Center that was meant for hiring more deputies.
These are issues he definitely doesn’t want to talk about in public, and all were his doing. That said, he should have enough respect for Broward voters to participate in a debate.
Jerry Fuller, Coconut Creek
Biden, Trump and the border
Like most foreign spouses, my wife got her legal U.S. residency shortly after we married. The pattern dramatically changed when undocumented migrants replaced the seasonal farmworker flows from Latin America. Just as important, people who arrived with visitor visas overstayed and became illegal immigrants.
Their kids grew up feeling as American as you and me. They fell in love with Americans (and vice versa), got married and had kids, who were U.S. citizens.
Back when Republicans were less doctrinaire, few objected to Ronald Reagan’s legalization through legislation on the status of otherwise law-abiding immigrants who crossed illegally or overstayed.
Donald Trump has denounced the beneficiaries of Biden’s policy as criminals “poisoning the blood” of Americans. They only want to become Americans, legally.
Biden solved an old problem with a family-friendly measure that will increase tax revenues and ensure that families get a crack at the American dream. If you believe government should be family-friendly, this is the most important such measure since DACA (a temporary fix) and before that, President Obama’s health care expansion.
Before acting, Biden strengthened border security. He saw that the border had become untenable with short-run effectiveness. Trump told Republicans in Congress not to support border legislation that had been worked out with Democrats, because he needed a mess at the border for his presidential campaign.
Frank McNeil, Boca Raton
The writer, a retired ambassador, and his wife represented the U.S. in Asia, Latin America and Western Europe from the Kennedy through the Reagan administrations.
For cleaner campaigns
Let’s have some dignified campaigning, for a change.
Voters are bored with the cruel and childish rhetorical exchanges between candidates and prefer to hear their ideas and compare their agendas instead. Voting is a powerful right. The process leading up to voting depends on the actions of the nominees and their positions. Without their dignity and integrity, we’re left to guess.
Candidates, don’t make this presidential race another bumpy ride. Be the grownups you’re supposed to be!
Roberta Chaleff, Tamarac
Schoolyard taunts
Is Donald Trump so cognitively impaired that he can’t figure out how to pronounce Kamala Harris’ name, or is he just so politically impotent that he has to resort to schoolyard taunts and name-calling?
Margery Resnick, Boca Raton
