Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Monday brushed off President Donald Trump’s weekend demand that she issue a “full throated apology” for publicly challenging him during a White House event last month.
The governor responded to Trump’s social media post while at a public event in Bangor. But it was not an apology.
Mills contested Trump’s claims that he wants to protect women through his executive order barring transgender athletes from women’s sports, pointing out that women in the United States and around the world will be hurt by his moves to eliminate foreign aid, attack Social Security and Medicaid, and impose tariffs that will spark trade wars and drive up consumer prices.
“If the current occupant of the White House wants to protect women and girls, he should start by protecting the women and teenage girls who are suffering miscarriages and dying because they can’t get basic, lifesaving health care in states across this country,” Mills said, according to media reports from the Bangor event. “If he truly cares about women and girls and people of this country, let’s see the economic plan. Let’s see the health care plan. Let’s see the education plan.”
Mills, who was in Bangor celebrating the purchase of a mobile home park by its residents under a new state law, added that “if he cares about women and girls, he should talk about the little girls and boys and infants in Sudan and other countries who are dying right now because he has cut off their supply of food and lifesaving medicines.”