EXCLUSIVE: Military college lecturer tells students Trump is 'doing what dictators do'
A Vermont military college professor wrote in an email to students, a copy of which Campus Reform obtained, that President Donald Trump is "doing what dictators do."
In a statement to Campus Reform, the professor acknowledged how the email could be seen as politically biased.
He then said that he "expected that reaction from some."
A lecturer at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont emailed his international relations class a detailed email telling his students they should not believe what President Donald Trump says and the commander-in-chief is doing “what dictators do.”
In the six-paragraph email on November 5, adjunct faculty member C. Dart Thalman begn his email by stating that he is taking the “unusual” step of calling out Trump.
“I am taking the unusual step of calling out the President of the United States for what he said in a brief ‘news conference’ earlier this evening which is an extension of what he has been saying for a long time, with another level added beginning on election day and continuing since then,” Thalman wrote.
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Thalman wrote that Trump made numerous false allegations about the election process and the Demoractic party. He followed this statement by claiming “What President Trump is doing represents a great danger to our democracy.”
Thalman then said that Trump is “doing what dictators do.”
“What President Trump is doing is what dictators do, attack the press, call anything that does not support him illegitimate or illegal, try to manipulate the courts and other institutions of government to do his bidding, and falsely accuse the opposition of all sorts of wrongdoing,” he said.
Thalman then urges his class to “not trust anything” that President Trump is saying about the election “unless clear and credible evidence is presented.” He did tell students that they “are welcome to make any counter argument.”
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Thalman told Campus Reform that he can see how some students saw his email as politically biased, but he “expected that reaction from some.”
”In my letter, I tried to address that issue and welcomed counter arguments. But the arguments I, and many others across the political spectrum, are making are far more serious than just policy differences,” Thalman said.
A spokesperson for Norwich University told Campus Reform that they reject “the perception and reality of indoctrination in all forms and upholds the values of academic freedom and the promotion of critical thinking to prepare the nation’s next generation of leaders.”
Follow the author of this article: Elizabeth Najjar
