On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District, Glenn Grothman, a man whose record on women’s issues as a state legislator is bad enough that he didn’t just vote against emergency contraception for rape victims so that they couldn’t avoid get pregnant, he has publicly gone on record to say that women who seek it out are “trained” to say they were raped so they could get the morning after pill. He also has spent a lot of time badmouthing Planned Parenthood, calling the organization “racist” at times, and at others accusing them of allowing pregnant women to have sex-selective abortions, and arguing against funding them because “as a guy” he didn’t think their services would do HIM any good.
Grothman would also like to cancel Martin Luther King Day, called Kwanzaa “a fake holiday for black people”, and while he’s at it, has tried cancelling the weekend for workers. Grothman has pledged to cut all government assistance from others because “it’s a bribe to not work hard” and has encouraged his constituents to scrutinize people using food stamps in public to determine if they are “genuinely poor”.
Rounding out his delightful personality is his support for the anti-gay laws Uganda pushed forth, where the punishment for being gay is death, and that he feels the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling should not be honored because it would be disrespectful to the American Soldiers who gave their lives fighting for their deeply held religious beliefs in the Civil War (because that makes sense).
Back in 2012, Grothman claimed that President Obama and Sen. Tammy Baldwin only won office in 2012 because of widespread voter fraud, so voting record in Wisconsin supported repeated measures on Voter ID In two consecutive presidential elections now, Grothman straight up predicted Republican presidential candidate would have a better chance of winning Wisconsin because the Voter ID law was put into place, straight up admitting in April of 2016 that it would help stop Hillary Clinton (and sadly, he was proven correct).
Glenn Grothman has managed to weigh in on more issues in ways that we can only describe as inexplicably d***ish. In March of 2017, he went on a rant against college Pell Grants, arguing that they shouldn’t be funded because they, we s*** you not, “discourage marriages”. Don’t think about why attendance in college might discourage someone from settling down with a spouse too hard, because there is no statistic or logic behind Grothman’s stupid argument. But he was far from done… as the Supreme Court will be making a ruling in the Gill v. Whitford case, which is aimed at overturning an outrageous level of gerrymandering that was set up in Wisconsin several years back. And yet, Glenn Grothman is challenging that the Supreme Court shouldn’t have the authority to do that.
“I’m not sure there should be any restrictions whatsoever, because I don’t think it is the court’s business to draw lines. There are many rules right now — that the courts have laid out — that if you want your redistricting map approved you have to meet.”
Now, Grothman has made various insensitive racial comments through the years, and since we last updated his profile, he was asked about his feelings about Donald Trump’s “s***hole countries” remarks, and Grothman responded that it really wasn’t as offensive as things other presidents have done, like just for example, the time that Barack Obama met with the Reverend Al Sharpton:
“The past president brought Al Sharpton into the White House something like 80 times. That was kind of stunning to me, but nobody ever made a big ruckus out of it.”
Yes, Grothman just equated meeting with a civil rights leader with disparaging the entire African continent and Haiti as a “s***hole”. Making it worse? His comments came, of on all days… Martin Luther King Day.
Glenn Grothman withered in front of a town hall back in his home district in April 2017, and when faced with outrage over an attempted “Repeal and Replace” plan for the Affordable Care Act, straight up lied to his constituents and claimed that it would still cover pre-existing conditions (See Above, it didn’t). He was also his usually abrasively conservative self, acknowledging he supports a highly expensive but almost certainly ineffective border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, lying by claiming that Planned Parenthood is the “biggest abortion provider in the country,” and took time to s*** on the country’s welfare system, falsely claiming that it “discourages” work and marriage.
Glenn Grothman was re-elected to a third term in 2018 with 55% of the vote. Do you think he has a large swath of partisan votes that he’s made? You bet your ass he has:
- January 22nd, 2019: Grothman votes against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Grothman voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- January 27th, 2019: Glenn Grothman votes against HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attack Grothman our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
- February 28th, 2019: Glenn Grothman votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Grothman votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- April 4th, 2019: Glenn Grothman is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- May 17th, 2019: Grothman votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- June 4th, 2019: Rep. Grothman votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Glenn Grothman votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
- December 3rd, 2019: Rep. Grothman votes against a resolution to disallow Russia from re-entering the G7 and makes it the G8 until it leaves Ukraine.
- December 18th, 2019: Grothman ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
- May 15th, 2020: Grothman votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Grothman has been doing the political calculus and seems to think that eliminating all of the social safety net for all Americans isn’t a winning formula for him, so instead, he’s specifically attacking the social safety net that’s available for immigrants, who he has also been demonizing in discussions about the U.S./Mexico border. He’s always had a white nationalist bent in who he makes the targets of his rhetoric, so this stance tracks with his overall brand of being an ***hole.
Of course, the big campaign issue in 2020 is Covid-19, and on that, Grothman almost certainly didn’t do himself any favors, turning up maskless at the Wisconsin GOP convention in July, and while speaking, going into a savage coughing fit that sent respiratory droplets into the crowd. He insisted he was never sick, and it was just “a dry throat”, but with all the other evidence turning up right now, the more likely thing is that he just doesn’t care if he spreads Covid-19 or any other disease to anyone else.
Looking to take advantage of Glenn Grothman’s rampant ignorance and intolerance in a few weeks is former Democratic Wisconsin State Senator Jessica King, and in 2020, the +8 Republican lean of Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District is not impossible for her to overcome.