Exposing the Corruption of the "Family Values" Party
Dylan Howard was editor and chief content officer at The National Enquirer who became infamous for the gossip he did not print. He bought up stories with cash and an NDA to protect certain favored people, including Donald Trump. This was exposed in Ronan Farrow’s book “Catch and Kill” and landed Michael Cohen in jail.
Peter O’Rourke was the GOP Executive Director in Florida when he was accused of covering up sexual harassment complaints, retaliation, and political meddling at the Department of Veteran Affairs. In one example, he pulled an experienced investigator off the investigation of a Trump appointee named Peter Shelby, replacing him with a new investigator. He also socialized with Shelby and listened to Shelby’s venting. At Shelby’s request, the whistleblower was investigated.
The Southern Baptist Convention not only covered up for sexual predators among their fellowship, they often denigrated the survivors. They stonewalled and denied. In addition, predators were aided by the autonomy of individual churches and without sharing information with the Convention fellowship, congregations had no idea they were hiring predators. A few brave survivors took…
Bill Seitz was accused of sexual harassment after a going-away party for a Republican staffer. In his comments, he disparaged women in the legislature and made light of sexual harassment. He mocked women and used misogynist crude epithets to describe them. He apologized. The House leadership hired a law firm to investigate. The same law firm where Seitz worked for 36 years. The same law firm that donated to his campaign. They cleared him.
Bernadette Comfort is the vice-chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party. She was also implicated in an effort to cover up the sexual harassment allegations that featured Valentino DiGiorgio III. She claimed she didn’t know about the harassment allegations but two women claimed she was informed and seemed uninterested. The Philadelphia InquirerPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania · Friday, July…
Thomas Tobin was auxiliary bishop in Pittsburgh when he learned of sexual abuse happening within his diocese. He did nothing because, he said, his work was administrative, and so it was not his responsibility.
Fred Anderson is a Republican representative from Great Falls, Montana. He is running for re-election in 2022. You can see his answers to a local paper candidate questionnaire where he states abortion should be illegal at any time for any reason. So no rape or incest exception. Which fits with his failure to do his job as a high school principal and protect his students from a serial predator athletic trainer who abused as many as 200 boys. The gruesome details are in the Buzzfeed article.
Bill Dix was Majority Leader of the Iowa Senate when Kirsten Anderson was awarded $2.2 million in a sexual harassment suit. She settled for $1.75 million. When he announced the settlement he continued to insist she was fired for poor performance despite her being fired seven hours after she sent a memo detailing harassment in the office. He said he believed her allegations as well. Several Iowa politicians plus staff were revealed in testimony to have sexually harassed or been inappropriate with women in the office.
Mark Meadows was a Republican Congressman from North Carolina before becoming Trump’s Chief of Staff. During his tenure in Congress, he was censured for his handling of sexual harassment complaints against his Chief of Staff Kenny West. He learned of his behavior in late 2014, but did not act until staff went to him in 2015. He then moved West to his district office so that he no longer supervised women in the DC office. He finally terminated him in May 2015 but paid him until August. Payments beyond his end date were not permissible.
Larry Cotton was Associate Pastor at Parkway Baptist Church when the seventeen-year-old Jules Woodson came to him and told him that the youth pastor had forced her to give him oral sex the night before. Instead of being concerned about the teenager who has just been sexually assaulted, he attacked her, saying “so you participated.” He told her not to tell anyone and heaped the blame on her, protecting the youth pastor Andy Savage [See GOP Sexual Predators 324: Andy Savage.] Savage was suspended for a time but the church later asked her parents if they would mind if he came back. They minded.
The police were not informed.