
Gov. Matt Bevin blocked Attica Woodson Scott after she criticized his support for a late GOP state representative accused of child molestation.

Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky has never been known for his patience with political opponents.

A hard-right extremist who dismantled a functional Obamacare marketplace in his state and wants to force poor people to do community service to earn Medicaid coverage, Bevin regularly blocks people who disagree with him on Twitter, a practice that has resulted in a lawsuit from constituents.

But Bevin is not just blocking the citizens he serves. He is also blocking state lawmakers.


Attica Woodson Scott, the only black woman serving in the Kentucky state legislature, sharply criticized Bevin for his belated, insincere condemnation of the racist social media posts of former state Rep. Dan Johnson. Johnson, who last week committed suicide amid allegations he molested a teenage girl, had compared Barack and Michelle Obama to chimpanzees on Facebook.

“@GovMattBevin embraced Dan during and after the election,” tweeted Scott. “Your governor’s words hold no value. #LongCon”

On Monday morning, Scott woke to find that her governor had blocked her:

Good morning! I was blocked over the weekend from following your governor. Very mature, Matthew. .@GovMattBevin I do not care at all for your politics and cannot imagine how the only Black woman in the Kentucky legislature is a threat to you. pic.twitter.com/qfIoZ38nWW — Attica Woodson Scott (@atticascott) December 18, 2017

Bevin may have been done with Scott, but she was not done with him.

“Is it your official policy to block State legislators on Twitter?” Scott wrote. “Or, am I the only one? Is this a racist, sexist gesture on your part to block me? It never crossed my mind to block you, governor, despite our political differences.”

“You cannot force me to bow down to you or approach you in supplication," she continued. "So, you respond as some men do when rejected. You lash out in ways that are incoherent, lack meaning and fall short of understanding that you are not a deity to be revered.”

Scott concluded, “@GovMattBevin You are an insult to an office where the temporary occupant should welcome criticism and feedback. You touted yourself as a political outsider yet you cannot handle political truths from another elected outsider of a different gender and race. Tsk tsk.”

The governor's actions are even more inappropriate given that, as the Louisville Courier-Jornalist’s Marc Murphy points out, Bevin “avoids media accountability by communicating via Twitter.” It is his primary medium for engaging with the public, and therefore he has no business shutting anyone out — let alone a lawmaker.

Bevin picked the wrong woman to blackball. Scott will not be silenced from exposing his cowardice, and his attempts to do so only help her do so.