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VTA chief’s behavior
requires her firing
Re: “VTA needs new leader after its BART debacles” (Page A8, June 9).
The editorial has clearly demonstrated that GM Carolyn Gonot has shown incompetence and lack of transparency and misled other board members.
In fewer than three years BART expansion cost estimates have risen from $6.9 billion to $12.8 billion. Intolerable behavior requires her immediate firing for incompetence and intentionally false statements. Fire Gonot now.
And suspend the BART project to bring down the cost or to kill it. The federal government should not provide more funds.
Pratap Banthia
San Jose
Trump does not
deserve your vote
Re: “Biden, Trump launch into personal attacks” (Page A1, June 28).
If appearances and sounding confident are what matters, it cannot be denied that Joe Biden made a poor show of the first debate, albeit afflicted with a cold. But Donald Trump lied, gaslit and called the kettle black with practically every word he so confidently spoke.
His first term was a constant attack on sanity, science and truth, and he’s only gotten sharper while out of office in telling people that up is down and the sky is purple. Trumpism and Project 2025 will seek to pervert justice for his own revenge and end real elections to perpetuate a narrow and undeserving ruling class.
Whether the Democrats stick with Biden or move for a brokered convention, the right vote in November is for the Democratic party platform, a Democratic Congress and a Democratic administration. Trump’s ability to constantly lie with confidence does not deserve to be rewarded.
Mathew Clark
Campbell
Trump’s performance is
gold for fact-checkers
Re: “Biden, Trump launch into personal attacks” (Page A1, June 28).
None of the follow-up commentators mentioned it, but Donald Trump did not answer questions directly.
He began his time segment by going back to the previous topic to heap more criticism on President Biden. I did not hear him offer any specific action he plans to take to “Make America Great Again.”
I think that the fact-checkers will have a field day.
Rosemary Everett
Campbell
Trump’s ‘failing nation’
line doesn’t track
Re: “Biden, Trump launch into personal attacks” (Page A1, June 28).
At the debate, Donald Trump kept saying this is a failing nation and he would do better as president. Not true.
His handling of COVID was a disaster. Trump says President Biden has supported Ukraine, but it’s necessary to help Ukraine to protect our democracy. We haven’t forgotten Jan. 6, 2020, and the problems that ensued. Trump came into office and reduced taxes on the wealthy, and our Social Security and Medicare may be in peril if President Biden doesn’t get in office again.
Trump emphasizes the border issue, but we have been a melting pot of people throughout our history. Yes, the border should be controlled but being negative and saying immigrants are all criminals is a bad vibe.
Celeste McGettigan
San Jose
Biden should withdraw
after terrible debate
Re: “Biden, Trump launch into personal attacks” (Page A1, June 28).
President Biden needs to withdraw from the presidential race. His performance in the debate was remarkably terrible.
I just reviewed on YouTube his performance against Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential race. He was a different man in 2020. His speech was always clear, he was very animated and sharper in his logic. Even if elected, Biden’s mental capacity will decline and thereby threaten the security of our nation. As a lame-duck president, Biden would have an enlarged capacity for six months to bring peace to the Middle East. After President Johnson declined to run for another term, he was able to make significant progress in settling the Vietnam War.
President Biden has already made history: He initiated a massive investment in inexpensive renewable energy, passed a major infrastructure bill, expanded NATO, opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine, removed our troops from Afghanistan, and other endeavors.
Gary Latshaw
Cupertino
Flawed Trump will
better serve nation
Re: “The lazy authoritarianism of Donald Trump” (Page A7, June 26).
Jamelle Bouie writes: Trump has tried to break the presidency, to transform a constitutional office defined by its limits into an instrument of his personal authority.
History of the past 50 years, particularly the latest three administrations, shows the falsity of this outlook. The Great Society expansion of presidential powers has transformed it into an instrument of leftist entitlement programs.
Polls show increasing distrust of government with the expectation that things will get worse. Our international democracy ranking is a despicable 36th.
The pretense of morality by progressive administrations is resulting in uncontrolled entitlement spending, inflation with wage stagnation and outsourcing of American jobs. Taxpayers need to demand more efficiency. We need to encourage more private savings and investment to replace government economic control.
Narcissistic, autocratic Donald Trump will serve us better than the ideological redistribution policy that is destroying middle-class America.
Fred Gutmann
Cupertino