Trump calls Arkansas guv Asa Hutchinson 'RINO' for vetoing bill on trans minors healthcare: 'Bye-bye Asa'
Arkansas Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson is currently in the news for vetoing a bill passed by the state’s GOP-controlled legislature banning hormone treatment for transgender minors. A day after his act on Monday, April 5, the legislature voted to override his veto. And now, the 70-year-old governor has drawn the ire of former president Donald Trump who on Thursday, April 8, tore into him for allegedly backing “chemical castration of children”.
In a statement released under the letterhead from his Save America political action committee (PAC), Trump said: “Asa Hutchinson, the lightweight RINO Governor of Arkansas, just vetoed a Bill that banned the CHEMICAL CASTRATION OF CHILDREN. He then added: “Bye-bye Asa, that’s the end of him!” The former president, who lost to Joe Biden to end up as a one-term president, has used emails through the PAC and ‘Office of the 45th President’ to release statements either to endorse or attack people. Trump was banned by Twitter, a medium he often used for expressing his mind, in the wake of the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
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Trump often uses the term ‘RINO’ which means ‘Republican in Name Only’ to target his critics. Trump’s relations with Hutchinson have not been in the best of shape in recent times. Days after the Capitol protests in January, the Arkansas governor said he wanted the Trump administration to end and in February, he said he would not support the former president if he decides another presidential run in 2024. He also said the GOP couldn’t allow Trump to define its future.
#BREAKING President Trump Blasts Governor Hutchinson For Vetoing HB1570
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) April 8, 2021
“Asa Hutchinson, the lightweight RINO Governor of Arkansas just vetoed a Bill that banned CHEMICAL CASTRATION OF CHILDREN. ‘Bye-bye Asa,’ that’s the end of him!” pic.twitter.com/xUzGrOh20Z
Trump expresses support for ally Sarah Huckabee Sanders as Arkansas governor
In his statement, Trump also showed that he endorses his former press secretary and ally Sarah Huckabee Sanders as the next governor of the Natural State. Hutchinson, who has been serving as the governor since 2015, faces his term limit and Sanders has decided to run for the post of the governor. Her father Mike Huckabee had served as the governor of Arkansas between 1996 and 2007. In his statement, Trump said: “Fortunately for the Great State of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders will do a fantastic job as your next Governor!” Election for the post of Arkansas governor will be held in November next year.
Hutchinson, meanwhile, penned an op-ed for the Washington Post in which he defended his position on the transgender bill. According to him, he is attacked by people in his own party “for not being pure enough on social issues and for vetoing a bill that limited access to health care for transgender youth”.
I am pro-life, says Hutchinson
“For over 40 years, I have been fighting to build the Republican Party by advancing the principles of limited government and individual liberty. Thanks to that focus, the GOP has become the majority party in Arkansas. Now, I am being attacked by some of my Republican colleagues for not being pure enough on social issues and for vetoing a bill that limited access to health care for transgender youth,” the veteran said, adding: “Make no mistake: I am pro-life. I believe there are some issues where the stakes are so high that government must play a role in private life. I have fought my share of battles in defending the role of faith in our society. At the same time, while governor, I have lowered taxes, balanced the budget and defended the Second Amendment. Yet the reaction of some of my conservative friends now makes me wish they would remember President Ronald Reagan’s admonition that if someone agrees with you 80 percent of the time then they are your friend and ally — not the enemy.”
Hutchinson had served as the United States attorney for the Western District of Arkansas when Reagan was the president. He also said: “I hope Republicans, at least, can resist the constant pressure from activists to use government as a means to change the culture.” Hutchinson called the legislation a product of America’s culture war.
However, with the Arkansas House and Senate overriding Hutchinson’s veto, the state became the first in the country to bar doctors from providing treatments to transgender minors, like irreversible hormone treatment that could even go to the extent of stopping puberty.