Welcome to the 695th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll actually be talking about Pennsylvania State Senator Scott Wagner, who has mounted a run to try to become the next Governor of Pennsylvania here in the 2018 mid-term elections, running against Democratic incumbent Tom Wolf. As a legislator, Wagner has served since 2014, and is considers himself 100% Pro-Life, which is hard to argue as he supports even fetal heartbeat bills that effectively ban abortion at 6 weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant, and sponsored a bill to outlaw D&E abortions prior to 20 weeks. His fanaticism about a woman’s right to choose, however, is far from the only reason we’re highlighting him today.
Let’s start with how his campaign kicked off in a less-than-inspiring manner, as while addressing a country club crowd, Wagner realized that he was being filmed by a progressive activist… so he threatened to confiscate their camera (which, he has no legal right to do), and then backed that threat up, snatching it away. The activist then wisely pulled out their cell phone and began recording with that, demanding that Wagner return their actual camera, at which point, Wagner physically assaulted them in an effort to get the phone away.
So… that’s nuts, right? Like, you would think he would have an aide or staffer handle this sort of thing and be subtle about it, but nope. And we’re just warming up.
As the GOP Primary went on, at one point Scott Wagner argued that “teachers are overpaid”, which runs contrary to most of the grassroots movements for raises for teachers that have spawned in the past 18 months or so, and is incredibly hard to justify based on the actual math involved. Not that the math matters to Wagner, though, because he overstated the average teacher’s salary by roughly $18,000 a year.
Anyway, even with some serious red flags popping up along the way, Scott Wagner won the GOP nomination for Governor of Pennsylvania with 44% of the vote in a three way primary. He then resigned from the Pennsylvania State Senate to focus full time on his gubernatorial campaign, and honestly, based on what we’re about to talk about, it might be better if he’d focused on being a State Senator, and campaigned saying how important that job is.
There’s people who deny the existence of climate change, and then there’s crackpots with cockamamie junk scientific explanations for why it’s not a thing. Scott Wagner is decidedly in the latter category, as he has not only addressed increasing temperatures by falsely claiming that the Earth is getting closer to the sun, but that some of the warming we’re seeing is from “body heat” from rising populations. In March of 2018, at a town hall, a potential voter asked him how he could be so clueless about the environment, as she had grave concerns as to what the Earth might be like if something wasn’t done to halt climate change, and Wagner just decided to go with condescension in his reply, telling her, “You’re real young and naïve.”
Wondering how Wagner is on LGBTQ issues? Well, for a time, there were claims out there that Scott Wagner might actually be a bit moderate when it came to folks from alternative lifestyles, but then he came out in support of a ban on same sex marriage that would, of course, be unconstitutional via the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, and in August 2018, he was recorded voicing his support for transphobic bathroom bans, citing people’s “plumbing” to justify his bigotry:
“It’s real simple. If you’re born with male plumbing, you use the men’s room. If you’re born with female plumbing, you use the ladies’ room. Period.”
Now, if you think that was a gaffe, there is also the fact that Wagner was the only candidate in the race to refuse to release his tax returns, and his reason was that union employees at his private business might use that information to squeeze a higher salary out of him:
”If I make money or don’t make money that’s my business. And you know what? If I disclose those tax returns, union representatives get a hold of my tax returns, go around to my employees’ homes at night and say, ‘Hey Mrs. Jones, how much does your husband make?’ She goes, 'Well he makes this.’ 'Well this guy makes a lot more.’“
Instead, he just comes off as a Trump Republican, following the lead of Mango Mussolini on tax returns. And, not just on his taxes. Because in September 2018, Wagner decided to share with potential voters his thoughts on immigrants and Muslims, and… well… he lifted his talking points from InfoWars, and compared immigrants and Muslims to raccoons in a racist diatribe.
You’re probably thinking that doing something that racist almost certainly would be the dumbest thing a candidate can say as the elections… but Wagner still wasn’t done. Now trailing far behind Gov. Tom Wolf in polls, he thought he would "joke” about the deficit by saying “Russia will help me with Tom Wolf,” and “I’ll call Paul Manafort if I have to.” (Manafort, of course, had already been found guilty on several counts of fraud, and was in the process of flipping and pleading guilty to a myriad of other crimes in the Muller investigation.)
Suffice to say, Scott Wagner seems like a longshot on November 6th at this point. We hope he doesn’t run for any office in 2020, and just goes the f*** away.
One Year Ago, October 7th, 2017: Bryce Marlatt (OK)
Two Years Ago, October 7th, 2016: David Duke (LA)
Three Years Ago, October 7th, 2015: Steve Stockman (TX)… 2015 Update
Four Years Ago, October 7th, 2014: Steve Stockman (TX)