Republicans in Michigan are outraged about recent totally unforgivable comments one of their own nominees made about rape. But not outraged enough to ask him to step out of the race. Typical.
Sunday, Robert “RJ” Regan, a favorite to win a vacant Michigan House seat in a May 3 special election, appeared on a Facebook live stream hosted by Rescue Michigan Coalition, a conservative group that has fully embraced the “Big Lie.” When asked for his response to it being “too late” to overturn failed President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential loss, he responded with the bizarre analogy:
"That's kind of like having three daughters. I tell my daughters if rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it," Regan said. "That's not how we roll. That's not how we won this election."
Regan went on to compare his own win in the recent primary with the biblical story of David and Goliath because his opponents had more financial support.
He was called out for his analogy immediately by Amber Harris, a Republican activist on the panel, saying it was “shameful.”
"Advice to your daughters: Don't do that," Harris said. "Fight all the time."
The Michigan Freedom Fund, a nonprofit conservative organization, released a statement calling Regan's remarks "despicable & disqualifying."
"I’m the mom of four young girls. Every day I teach them to stand up for themselves, to know what they’re worth, and to fight back against creeps like Regan," Executive Director Tori Sachs said. "RJ Regan doesn’t belong anywhere near the state Capitol and that is why we endorsed and supported his opponent.”
Wednesday, Regan released a statement blaming the “media” for “slanderous reporting,” and only added that he regretted saying something that “could so easily have been taken out of context.”
“My message was intentionally truncated to make it look like I said one thing, when in fact, I was saying the exact opposite,” Regan said.
“We don’t take it laying down, nothing is inevitable, even in the face of insurmountable odds, we fight, always we fight. That is part of our fabric as American citizens when we defeated world superpower Great Britain 250 years ago,” he added.
He added: “Now I understand how President Trump felt when he discovered his biggest enemies were in his own political party,” Regan added.
This isn’t Regan’s first foray into nonsense. Last year he posted videos of Dr. Anthony Fauci next to a noose, suggesting that COVID-19 vaccines were part of a “genocide” by the government. He has openly endorsed QAnon conspiracy theories.
Regan’s own daughter, Stephanie Regan, has urged people in Michigan not to vote for her father.
Back in 2020, she tweeted a simple message regarding her father’s campaign: “If you’re in Michigan and 18+ pls for the love of god do not vote for my dad for state rep. Tell everyone.”
She then followed that tweet up with: “I don’t feel safe rn sharing further information regarding his beliefs, but please look him up and just read for yourself. ”
Regan responded to his daughter’s recent tweets saying “her big thing has to do with the systemic racism that’s going on in the country,” The Hill reported.
“She’s a big believer in that,” he continued, adding, “The only place where I really see systemic racism would be the abortion clinic cause they seem to target the African American community.”
“I don’t buy into this whole systemic racism thing at all,” he later said.
“I’m not saying there’s not hurdles to overcome. We all have hurdles to overcome. You know, as a quote-unquote rich, white, Christian male, people look at me a certain way. And it’s not always good. So, everybody has obstacles to overcome,” he also said, while adding he thinks Trump has "done more for the black community than any president we’ve had in the last 20 years."
You can hear Regan’s comments about rape below.
