On Friday, we learned that a former aide to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is alleged to have verbally abused an anonymous woman on the phone until she was left “weeping and in shock.”
The former aide, Mike Vereb, allegedly invoked Shapiro’s name on the call, telling the woman that “by the time he and Josh were done with me, I would be worse than nothing,” said the woman, who requested that her name not be published, in an interview with ABC News.
“You are going to continue to be nothing by the time Josh and I get done with you,” the woman quoted Vereb as saying, telling ABC News that she was left “shaken” by the way in which Vereb “freely” referenced others in power. “Obviously part of what left me shaken was not just Mr. Vereb’s aggressive and unrelenting tone, but how freely he made it seem he was speaking beyond himself,” she said.
While Democrats and the media, always quick to invoke the “Republicans pounce” rule, may see this as another cudgel to whack a possible Kamala Harris VP pick with, there’s a catch:
There is no evidence Shapiro (then the Keystone state’s attorney general, had anything to do with this or even knew about it. Shapiro did know, however, that Mike Vereb was a problem.
There is no evidence that Shapiro, who was at the time Pennsylvania’s state attorney general, was aware of Vereb’s allegedly threatening call.
The 2018 incident marks the second allegation of wrongdoing against Vereb — who was once one of Shapiro’s closest aides. After bringing him to the governor’s office in early 2023, the Shapiro administration settled an unrelated sexual harassment complaint against Vereb last September for nearly $300,000, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer
Weeks later, Vereb resigned.
A little caution is in order here.
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First, it’s not known yet whether Gov. Shapiro will be Kamala Harris’s VP pick. While he has the chance to possibly swing a must-have Electoral College state, his Jewishness may cost Kamala Harris votes in Michigan, another vital swing state. But that, in this context, is neither here nor there.
If Shapiro ends up being Kamala’s choice for second banana, there will be plenty of issues for Republicans to pounce on. This isn’t one of them. Statements from Shapiro’s people support the claim that the then-state AG didn’t know about this incident, which reportedly happened six years ago, and there is no evidence to the contrary – at least, not yet.
Critics say the allegations against Vereb raise questions about whether Shapiro should have known about his alleged behavior and worked harder to prevent it.
Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for Shapiro, claimed the then-attorney general was not made aware of the woman’s complaint at the time and more broadly condemned Vereb’s alleged behavior.
“This incident occurred 6 years ago and was not reported to agency leadership at the time,” Bonder said in a statement to ABC News. “This alleged behavior would be completely inappropriate and would not be tolerated — and any use of the Governor’s name in this manner is unacceptable.”
None of this should be construed as excusing Mike Vereb’s alleged behavior, which is despicable. But let’s look at the specifics, and apply the “shoe on the other foot” rule: Consider if this was an aide to JD Vance, who, several years ago, made some cruel and abusive statements to a constituent. Senator Vance didn’t know anything about it at the time and didn’t know about it at all until the unnamed constituent made an anonymous report. In the meantime, the aide engaged in other unacceptable behavior and was duly fired.
Democrats would try to tar Sen. Vance with a broad brush, to try to tie the aide’s behavior to him. And we would call it a nothing-burger.
We must, as people of principle, call this a nothing-burger as well.
So, for once, let’s hold back on the patented Republican pounce. There will be bigger and better issues to bring up.
