Jim Zeigler, a Republican who is currently serving his second term as a state auditor in Alabama, shared photos of Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema on his “Jim Zeigler State Auditor” Facebook page (which is public), as well as on his personal account.
Why?
The grossly misogynistic post speaks for itself ... and it’s worth noting that it in spite of the page being public, it’s seemingly been set so that his post cannot be embedded.
Here is a screenshot of the full image:
And here is a screenshot which shows his caption:
As reported by AL.com, in an early version of the post (which has since been edited and removed), he claimed that the senator “took the floor improperly attired." With or without that phrase, the post reeks of sexism and misogyny. The image tries to shame Sen. Sinema for wearing a dress and boots on the Senate floor, which is an entirely normal outfit. It feels safe to say that members of the GOP will attack women for just about anything, including, apparently, wearing clothes.
Sen. Sinema is Arizona’s first female senator. She’s also the country’s first openly bisexual senator, and the second openly LGBTQ senator. (Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who openly identifies as a lesbian, was the first.)
According to AL.com, Zeigler is exploring the notion of running for U.S. Senate next year, against Alabama Sen. Doug Jones. Apparently part of this effort is gathering photos of Jones alongside Democrats like Cory Booker, Joe Biden, and in this case, Sinema.
Bizarre? Yes. This explanation, however, is where his justification for the photos attacking Sinema comes into play. As of this morning, Zeigler claims that the post was an attempt to draw attention to Jones, not Sinema nor her clothes.
The Facebook post is littered with comments berating Sinema, including jabs comparing her to a stripper or prostitute because of her outfit.
In a press conference this morning, Zeigler was asked if comments were appropriate for his Facebook page, given that he’s a public official. He replied that they were not appropriate. He claims that he “stayed up deleting those type of comments. But some of them were coming in faster than I was deleting them … I can’t control the commenters but for profanity and sexual innuendo, I’ve been attempting to delete those.”
Of course, he could have controlled the situation by not publishing the post to begin with. So much for an apology.