UPDATE: Tuesday, Dec 5, 2023 · 10:02:17 PM +00:00
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xaxnar
Digby has more on this from a CNN report.
This story about the head of the Florida GOP and his wife, the founder of LGBTQ-hating Moms for Liberty, is stunning:
The head of Florida’s Republican Party indicated Saturday he will not step down while facing an investigation into sexual assault, rejecting calls by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to give up his role as the party’s top operative.
In a letter to the state GOP, chairman Christian Ziegler did not address the allegation – which continued to send shockwaves through the state on Saturday as troubling new details about the investigation emerged – but suggested a conspiracy was afoot to leak details from the Sarasota Police Department probe.
“We have a country to save and I am not going to let false allegations of a crime put that mission on the bench as I wait for this process to wrap up,” he wrote.
There’s more at CNN: www.cnn.com/…
These people are so over the top, I’d say it was unbelievable — but it’s so Republican.
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has been following up on the developing story out of Florida, where the head of the Florida state Republican Party, Christian Ziegler and his wife Bridget Ziegler, a founder of Moms for Liberty, were involved in a sexual relationship with a woman that went seriously wrong,
...The story has a complicated, uncanny dynamic because, on the one hand, it’s that old as the hills story of a family values Republican caught up in sexual practices which, if harmless themselves for consenting adults, don’t at all square with their public personas or policy agenda. On the other, buried in that schadenfreude-y story of Republicans with their pants down is a very credible accusation of rape.
Some snippets:
...Bridget is a member of the Sarasota County School Board and the cofounder of Moms for Liberty, the far right “parental choice” group working to keep schools free of trans rights, gay rights and any other imagined woke indoctrination. Bridget Ziegler became such a phenom in Florida MAGA circles that Ron DeSantis appointed her to the board charged with lording over Disney.
...Bridget Ziegler meanwhile, who built her career in significant measure on demonizing gay people, admitted to police that she had sex with the female accuser at least once.
And…
...Two days earlier the three had agreed to meet for another encounter, but Bridget Ziegler couldn’t make it. The accuser canceled after finding out Bridget wouldn’t be there. “I was mainly in it for her,” she reportedly told Christian Ziegler. But Christian showed up anyway.
The woman has accused Christian of entering the home and raping her. According to the accuser’s account, she had no ability to consent since she had been home drinking all day.
...Christian Ziegler meanwhile offered as a defense that he had actually videotaped what he claimed was consensual sex. He recorded it but then, he claimed, deleted it before uploading it to his Google Drive.
There’s more at the link, including how the story is still developing. Among other things, it indicates it’s not just the Ziegler’s political careers that are jeopardy — it’s part of Ron De Santis and his deteriorating status as well.
Republican claims to be “the party of traditional family values” should be considered false advertising. It isn’t just all the rape accusations about Trump — it’s something of a theme among men around him: see here, here, and here for a few examples. And then Republican men complain women don’t want to date them.
According to a local Fox News report, Christian Ziegler has refused to step down as state party chair, and has not yet been charged with rape while the Sarasota Police investigation continues.