We’ve heard a lot about protective orders filed against full blown Trumpers like Herschel Walker (R. GA) and Larry Elder (R. CA). Well, we can add Sean Parnell (R. PA) to that list:
Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Jeff Bartos launched a charged personal attack against a leading GOP opponent Tuesday, arguing that Sean Parnell is “unelectable” because of protective orders Parnell’s wife sought against him as their marriage splintered.
Bartos’ criticism centers on two temporary protection-from-abuse orders issued against Parnell in 2017 and 2018. Neither was extended after a full hearing involving both parties, and both were later expunged. It remains unclear what Parnell’s wife accused him of doing when the temporary orders were issued. Parnell and his wife are in an ongoing divorce and custody battle.
Word of the protective orders has been quietly simmering in political and media circles for months, but Bartos made them public for the first time in an interview Tuesday. He planned to release a memo Wednesday on the matter and why it should steer Republicans away from Parnell.
“Sean’s actions and attitude toward women are disturbing, well-documented, and disqualifying,” Bartos, a Main Line real estate developer, said in a phone interview. “The citizens of Pennsylvania deserve to know this information.”
Here’s some more info:
Butler County officials served temporary protection-from-abuse orders against Sean Parnell on July 5, 2017, and June 8, 2018, according to call records from the county sheriff’s office. In both instances, Mr. Parnell was ordered to give up his guns, and he was ordered to leave his home in the 2017 incident.
The first order was withdrawn under an agreement between Mr. Parnell and his wife 13 days after the initial order. A judge denied a full protection order after a hearing in the 2018 case, according to court records provided by the Parnell campaign.
Mr. Parnell’s campaign pointed to the eventual dismissals as evidence that the accusations were never substantiated in a hearing involving both parties.
Experts in domestic violence said there are many reasons temporary orders don’t become permanent.
The victim may feel the temporary protection was sufficient. They may feel more at risk after an order has heightened the conflict. They may have financial concerns. Or a judge may have looked at the evidence and decided it wasn’t merited.
“Just because it was withdrawn or even dismissed after a trial doesn’t mean nothing happened,” said Sarah Katz, a Temple University law professor who specializes in family law and who spoke about Pennsylvania law generally, not the specifics of Mr. Parnell’s case. “So much of what happens in an abusive relationship just doesn’t count within the statute.”
With the records expunged, there’s little information available about what Mr. Parnell’s wife actually accused him of doing.
A message for Laurie Parnell was returned by an attorney, who said in an email that Mrs. Parnell’s “main focus has always been the best interests of her three children” and that child custody proceedings are scheduled to begin Nov. 1.
Mr. Parnell also sought a protection order against his wife in 2018, on the same day a PFA was issued against him. He accused her of physical and mental abuse but was denied a protection order, Butler County court records show.
While we may not know all the details, Parnell’s actions shouldn’t be surprising given his past remarks about women:
In a Sept. 17, 2019 appearance on Fox Nation, about one month before he announced his run to challenge U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Mt. Lebanon), Parnell says that modern-day feminism has driven a wedge between men and women.
“The idea that a woman doesn’t need a man to be successful, the idea that a woman doesn’t need a man to have a baby, the idea that a woman can live a happy and fulfilling life without a man, I think it’s all nonsense,” said Parnell.
Parnell is an Army veteran and is the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional District, which covers Mt. Lebanon, Penn Hills, the North Hills, western Allegheny County, and all of Beaver County. Parnell appeared on Fox Nation, a streaming service from Fox News, to discuss a study from Cornell University that blamed declining marriage rates on how there were fewer “economically attractive” men.
“From an evolutionary standpoint, it used to be women were attracted to your strength because you could defend them from dinosaurs,” said Parnell. (Dinosaurs went extinct more than 65 million years before humans evolved.)
“But now your financial status in today’s society is emblematic of your strength, which is why you have all these young hotties marrying these old guys," he continued. "I am gonna say something very un-PC, I reject this study wholesale. I feel like the whole happy wife, happy life nonsense has done nothing but raise one generation of women tyrants after the next.”
Friendly reminder, Parnell is Trump’s chosen candidate:
Trump picked Parnell over several other Republican candidates, including businessman Jeff Bartos, Trump's former ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands, and conservative political commentator Kathy Barnette.
In his endorsement, Trump repeated his
"Big Lie" of fraud in the 2020 election, falsely claiming that Parnell -- who lost his 2020 House race in Pennsylvania's 17th District to Lamb by nearly 10,000 votes -- was "robbed in his congressional run in the Crime of the Century—the 2020 Presidential Election Scam."
"Sean bravely fought for our Country as a Captain in the U.S. Army and was awarded two Bronze Stars (one for valor!) and the Purple Heart. Unlike our current administration, he never left anyone behind," Trump said, in a shot at President Joe Biden's withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
The endorsement underscored Trump's desire to be a major player in next year's Republican primaries.
The endorsement underscored Trump's desire to be a major player in next year's Republican primaries.
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