At some point in our lives, we’ve all done stupid things.

Take, for example, the situation U.S. Rep. Susan Wild finds herself in. Wild, who represents Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District - that happens to include Carbon County - is taking some well-deserved heat over comments she made in a recent Zoom call with other Democratic candidates.

Wild said in the call she was “dismayed” over representing a county that supported former President Donald Trump, something they did in 2016 and 2020.

“After Trump came along, it went from a working-class blue district to a - they drank the Trump Kool-Aid - and it became a red county,” Wild said in the video. “So, I was dismayed when I got that as part of my district.”

She went on, saying that since then, she learned Carbon voters were “sorely neglected at the federal level under their last Representative, who was a Republican.”

After redistricting, Wild got the county from now 8th District Democrat U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright. Before Cartwright, Republican Dan Meuser, who now represents the 9th District, served Carbon voters.

Wild won her last election in 2022 by fewer than 6,000 votes over Republican Lisa Scheller, the former CEO of Silberline Manufacturing.

Adding to the current muck, Wild’s latest exercise in stupidity regarding the Carbon electorate wasn’t her first.

In 2022, she indicated the county’s Republican voters may have needed to be educated on the error of their ways. She said the county was “very rural.”

“Carbon County has many attributes, but it is a county that - although it was once an Obama county - it since has become a Trump county,” Wild said. “I’m not quite sure what was in their heads because the people of Carbon County are exactly the kind of people who should not be voting for a Donald Trump, but I guess I might have to school them on that a little bit.”

So she had to “school” voters in a county she was later “dismayed” to represent?

Huh?

Local GOP officials were saddened and disappointed with Wild’s latest comments.

Lee Becker, county chairman, said the comments didn’t make him happy. “Susan Wild is supposed to represent the people of Carbon County, whether Democrat or Republican or no affiliation.”

He continued, saying he was not surprised by her comments. “Susan Wild is in it for Susan Wild.”

On the other side, local Democratic Party chair Tina Henninger, toed the party line, saying the congresswoman has been “very responsive” to constituents.

Wild, in a statement regarding her latest faux pas, said it was “the honor of my lifetime” to represent Carbon County and that she was “grateful for the partnership” with her constituents.

No matter the gratitude, her words can’t go unnoticed.

ED SOCHA/TNEDITOR@TNONLINE.COM

Ed Socha is a retired newspaper editor with more than 40 years experience in community journalism. Reach him at tneditor@tnonline.com.

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.