Opinion
Chistina Fink, Vice Chair of the Republican Committee of Lower Merion/Narberth (RCLMN) responded on Thursday (September 2) to the article that I published, also on Thursday, about a reception at Jeff Bartos’ house for the Republican candidates running for Lower Merion School Board. Christina is one of those candidates.
She begins by chastising me for not reporting the truth in my article. According to Christina, when I wrote that she “expressed doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential Election,” that was a lie. She insists “this NEVER happened.”
Decide for yourself if Christina ever expressed doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 Election.
On January 7, on Facebook, John Munroe posted an email exchange that he had with Christina.
In his email to her John says,
Yourself and other RCLMN members who had a hand in legitimizing these seditious acts [January 6] should resign your posts and remove yourself from local politics in the best interest of the community.
Responding to John, Christina says,
Watching the video of women pulling out suitcases of ballots from under hidden tables after clearing the room, over 400 legal affidavits by individuals who saw first hand election fraud, testimony of the truck driver asked to drive a tractor trailer full of ballots from NY to PA, ballots being sent to households where anyone can fill them out and send them in with their choices, no longer requiring signatures on ballots to match the person’s driver’s license, tens of thousands of dead people voting, voting machines which switched votes from one candidate to another etc. make millions of citizens very upset and uneasy –
I suppose reasonable people can disagree about this, but my interpretation of the above is that this was Christina expressing doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 Election.
Decide for yourself if Christina tried to organize a bus trip to Washington, D.C. on January 6.
Christina sent an email in December of 2020, under the letterhead of the RCLMN
Lower Merion and Narberth Republicans, Independents and Patriots!
We have a number of requests to see if we are organizing [emphasis added] a bus to join our fellow patriots in Washington, D.C. on January 6. The Lower Merion Narberth Republican Committee would like to know if YOU [emphasis not added] would like to go so we can access (sic) if we have enough interest that we would organize (emphasis added) a bus and would all go together.
Please send a (sic) email to me: Christina Fink at ChristinaFinkRCLMN@gmail.com if you would like to go. Please be sure that if you say you want to do this that you are committed to going as I will be spending time and effort in figuring out logistics. If we have enough interest, I will join you on the bus [emphasis added].
Again, reasonable people can disagree about this, but the email that Christina sent explicitly says that we would organize a bus and would all go together.
Who is the “we” that Christina was referring to that would organize a bus on which all would go together? To me it seemed obvious that had there been enough interest expressed, that Christina would have organized a bus to Washington, D.C. and that she would have been on that bus. Hence, I wrote The fact is, if Fink did not organize a bus, it was not for the lack of trying. And I totally stand by that.
About my “casual statement” of her “possibly wanting schools to teach that the election was stolen.”
What I wrote was –
It remains to be seen if she would urge history teachers in Lower Merion to present a more even-handed approach as to whether or not the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen.
It is a relief to know that Christina thinks that possibility “is ridiculous.” It would be even more of a relief to hear her publicly state that Joe Biden was elected President in a free and fair election.
She called those who attended the Stop the Steal rally patriots. That’s all I need to know. Keep that woman away from schools!
Christina,
I can assure you that I would never, without permission, publish any truly private conversation that I had with you or anybody else. But perhaps we define “private conversation” differently.
I used two sources for this story. One was an EMAIL BLAST, under the letterhead of the RCLMN that you sent in December to – – how many “Republicans, Independents and Patriots?” The other was an email I that I “scraped” from a Facebook Group that has 1,600+ members. If you have a problem with the latter “going public,” your quarrel should be with the person who posted it, not with me.
I would also point out that the statement attributed to you in which you say that you, “simply listed all of the facts and events which were actively being discussed in the press at that time,” was NOT MADE SHORTLY AFTER THE ELECTION. You made that statement after January 6.
I also noticed that this is second time that you described your effort, or lack thereof, to facilitate (is that better than organize?) a bus trip to Washington, D.C. on January 6, as “not trying very hard” or “trying hard.” I don’t know why you put that in quotes, because I never said how hard you tried. The fact is, nobody cares how hard or little you tried. Nobody compelled you to put any effort at all into enabling people to attend an event which was called “The Stop the Steal Rally.” I would venture to say that there are even some Republicans among us (I suppose you would call them RINOs), who would say that you should not have so much as lifted a finger in an effort to get people to attend the “Stop the Steal Rally.”
You say that “your comments were made prior to any investigation into the reports which, on their face, should have made anyone uneasy.” Without getting into a back and forth about which of the issues you raised had already been debunked by January 6,” there is no disputing that by the time you made your comments, the 2020 Election had been thoroughly litigated in at least 60 lawsuits in all five states where the results were being contested.
If anybody owes anybody an apology, it is you who owes me one. You have accused me of lying. I did not lie. I’ll take you at your word that when you wrote on or about January 7 – “Watching the video of women pulling out suitcases of ballots from under hidden tables after clearing the room, over 400 legal affidavits by individuals who saw first- hand election fraud, testimony of the truck driver asked to drive a tractor trailer full of ballots from NY to PA, ballots being sent to households where anyone can fill them out and send them in with their choices, no longer requiring signatures on ballots to match the person’s driver’s license, tens of thousands of dead people voting, voting machines which switched votes from one candidate to another etc.” – That you were not expressing doubts about the legitimacy of the election. By the same token, I think that a reasonable person, after reading the litany of fraud claims that you put forth, would be surprised to learn that you didn’t have doubts about the legitimacy of the election.
And as for your outrage over my describing your “effort” or lack thereof, to enable people to attend the “Stop the Steal Rally” as “organizing,” I think that is what a reasonable person would describe as “absurd.”
Well Gerry. I know you are determined to be “right” in this debate but you are not. No matter how much you cherry pick words or take sentences out of context or manipulate or twist or interpret with the limited amount of information you have, only I know the truth, what transpired and what actions I did and did not do. I am not going to be bullied by you. The truth is (1) I did NOT organize a bus to DC no matter how many times you say I did and (2) I NEVER cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election. It’s as simple as that.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Dear Gerry,
Now I think you are being very unfair and you owe me an apology. First of all I never gave you my permission to publish my private correspondence with a citizen. As a “journalist”, it is in poor form, to say the least, for you to publish private e-mails and statements from your sources without at least a heads up! And what you did publish of our private exchange does NOT support your statements that I “am questioning the 2020 election results” or that I was “organizing a bus” to the January 6th rally. The statement about the election that you attribute to me (which was shortly after the election) simply listed all of the facts and events which were actively being discussed in the press at that time. I was simply highlighting the fact that people were “uneasy” at that time about many of the alleged election abuses the were being reported. This is the absolute truth. My comments were made prior to any investigation into the reports which, on their face, should have made anyone uneasy. It is a HUGE stretch to say that my mentioning that citizens were uneasy as they heard about these facts (much of the unease, by the way, was with Democrats and not just Republican citizens I was talking to) somehow translates to these citizens having “doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 election.” I have NEVER said I have doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 election. But there are facts and events which transpired which make citizens uneasy. So you are not being fair or honorable here. You are simply using a very loose and weak sentence of private correspondence to support your “statement” which is geared only to discredit me personally and my candidacy for School Board Director.
Regarding the “organizing a bus” issue……AGAIN- I completely reject your premise that spending 10 minutes to write a note to my constituents in Lower Merion and Narberth, who elected me Vice-Chair of the Republican Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth and to whom I owe an obligation to serve, constitutes “organizing a bus”. My note was written in response to dozens of inquires to me, asking if a bus was being organized to attend a political rally in our nation’s capital on Jan 6th. Within a very short time of sending that note, I informed them that I would not be personally helping to look into a bus for transport. Your suggestion that this somehow constitutes “trying hard” to “organize a bus” to DC on Jan. 6th is disingenuous. I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you are just ignorant of the facts. The TRUTH and the ACTUAL facts remain that I did NOT organize a bus to DC on Jan 6th and I did NOT go to DC on January 6th. Its as simple as that. Just because you, Gerry, say I did over and over does NOT make it the TRUTH. I continue to ask that you stop spreading lies and destructive innuendo about me. I also welcome you to sit down with me to get to know me and my thoughts. You, as a journalist, have never contacted me, called me, emailed me or in any way attempted to get to know me or my views and yet somehow seem very focused on trashing and discrediting me. Thank you.
Ms Fink has been an outspoken proponent of the big lie.. she has been actively involved in promoting conspiracy theories and supported the fraudulent election related lawsuits that followed. Not to mention her support for the events of January 6th.
The entirety of her public statements show that she is not fit to preside over our children’s education. In fact I would state that she’s not fit to pick up our trash either.
Regardless of her actions following the election, the emails show her to be defensive and there is no indication that she thoughtfully evaluates more than one aspect of a situation. Such an attitude is not appropriate for a member of the school board.