A member of the broadening field of Democrats who think they can be the state’s next governor actually thinks Donald Trump is our problem?
Nirav Shah issued a campaign primer on what an alleged problem the president is, according to the website BiddefordBuzz.com.
Shah apparently missed the part of the movie where he is the one we need protection from.
“There has never been a candidate for Maine governor who has proven by their actions to be more utterly unqualified for the job more than Nirav Shah,” historian and former Maine Department of Education Commissioner Tom Desjardin said.
Desjardin analyzed Shag’s candidacy in a piece for The Maine Wire late last year, writing that Shah has a history of utter administrative failure – not only in Maine but in his previous jobs.
Shah is best known for leading the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention through the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also held a role with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the failed Biden administration before returning to his home state.
“Shah’s background demonstrates a staggering inability to effectively manage or communicate in the field of public health,” Desjardin also wrote in a column three years ago.
Shah was director of the Illinois Department of Public Health in 2015 when an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease resulted in 13 deaths and 74 infections at the Illinois Veterans Home.
Shah was among several Illinois officials heavily criticized for their response to the outbreak, and a 2019 state audit report of the incident indicated that the Illinois CDC did not visit the facility until nearly two weeks into the outbreak.
Shah insisted that the agency followed all federal guidelines and moved quickly.
Illinois U.S. senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth called for Shah’s resignation, but he remained in his position until the governor who appointed him lost his re-election bid in 2018.
The state of Illinois six years ago reached a $6.4 million settlement agreement with several families of veterans who died in the outbreak.
After Democrat Gov. Janet Mills appointed Shah as disease-control director in 2019, he became a media darling of the legacy press because of his unending series of “news conferences.”
“Shah received fawning praise from local left-wing media outlets for quoting popular music while promoting cooperation with draconian and invasive pandemic-era restrictions and mandates, many of which, such as masking and social distancing, have now been shown to be ineffective or arbitrary,” Seamus Othot of The Maine Wire wrote last August when Shaw first started threatening a bid for governor.
The dog-and-pony shows staged by Shah frequently included song lyrics and Dad jokes in an attempt to bring levity to his pandemic reports.
And he’s the same guy who now says Trump is a danger?
“Trump is a threat to our country, our state, our democracy, and our values,” Shah warned in his new campaign commercial. “I’ve stood up to Trump to protect our state before, and I’m ready to do so again.”
The question really is whether Shah is able to protect Maine from himself.
