Democrat who went viral for blasting ‘groomer’ slur accuses GOP of using ‘full fringe QAnon hateful rhetoric’

Authored by independent.co.uk and submitted by Minneapolitanian

The Democratic Michigan state senator who went viral after blasting the GOP’s use of the “groomer” slur has criticised the Republican Party for what she calls its “full fringe QAnon hateful rhetoric”.

Mallory McMorrow appeared on MSNBC’sMorning Joe, saying that “there was an opportunity for the Republican Party to go back to debating how we spend tax dollars,” but that they’re instead using “full fringe QAnon hateful, hateful rhetoric with no actual policy”.

“Part of the reason I really wanted to identify myself is because this moment is going to require straight, white, Christian, suburban moms to stand up and get uncomfortable and say this is not okay,” she added during the Wednesday morning interview.

“Because odds are, a lot of us are probably pretty comfortable and okay, but that doesn’t mean that this is okay. And we can’t stand back and let it happen,” she said.

After a Republican state senator accused the Democratic legislator of supporting attempts to “groom” and “sexualise” children in a campaign fundraising email, Ms McMorrow took her response to the floor of the state capitol.

“I sat on it for a while wondering, ‘Why me?’ And then I realised – I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme,” she said in remarks on 19 April. “You can’t claim that you are targeting marginalised kids in the name of ‘parental rights’ if another parent is standing up to say ‘no’.”

In an email soliciting donations to her campaign on 18 April, Senator Lana Theis heaped together a list of right-wing tropes that have dominated GOP campaigns in 2022, alleging that “our children are under assault in our schools” from “gender-bending indoctrination” and “race-based education” promoted by their political opponents.

She also lashed out at Ms McMorrow, claiming she is among a group of “progressive social media trolls” who are “outraged they can’t teach, can’t groom and sexualise kindergarteners or that 8-year-olds are responsible for slavery,” without pointing to any such evidence, as GOP officials and right-wing personalities invoke baseless smears against LGBT+ people and their allies relying on the same language.

In furious five-minute remarks that went viral across social media on Tuesday, Ms McMorrow condemned the attacks and placed them within a broader, toxic national campaign to distort concepts like “critical race theory” and LGBT+ people for political leverage.

During her speech on Tuesday, Ms McMorrow said, “I am a straight, white, Christian, married suburban mom, who knows that the very notion that learning about slavery or redlining or systemic racism somehow means that ‘children are being taught to feel bad and hate themselves because they are white’ is absolute nonsense”.

“No child alive today is responsible for slavery,” she said. “No one in this room is responsible for slavery. But each and every single one of us bears responsibility for writing the next chapter of history. … We are not responsible for the past. We also cannot change the past. We can’t pretend that it didn’t happen, or deny people their very right to exist.”

“This is the Michigan Republican Party right now. This is the national Republican Party right now,” she told MSNBC on Wednesday. “It’s disgusting, it’s hateful, it’s horrible.”

Ms McMorrow said Ms Theis “said nothing back” after her speech, adding that she “couldn’t even be bothered to look me in the eye. I looked at the back of her head the entire speech. She turned away from me”.

“I have never been one to shy away from saying things to people’s face and she’s too much of a coward to even acknowledge my existence,” she added.

Asked what has happened with moderate Republicans in her state, Ms McMorrow spoke about “rising extremism and we’ve seen this play out with gerrymandering”.

“The fact is Michigan is a very purple state. We vote pretty evenly Democratic versus Republican, but the legislature, particularly in the state senate, has been Republican-controlled since 1984 despite the fact that in 2014, they only got less than 50 per cent of the votes,” she added. “They got 72 per cent of the Senate seats, and it encourages going further and further to the fringes.”

“We had an attempted kidnapping of” Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer and on “the day that we learned in the Senate about that plot, the Senate Majority Leader walked out of our Senate chambers, walked to the front of our capitol and rallied with the same hateful conspiracy theorist that plotted that kidnapping, that came to our chambers fully armed and threatened us, and told them to keep going,” Ms McMorrow said. “That’s where we’re at right now. And unless we push back and vote them out of office, it’s not going to get any better.”

Asked about the response to her speech, she said “the numbers speak for themselves”. As of Wednesday morning, her speech had received almost 9 million views on Twitter.

“This is definitely not something that I’m wanting to do to go viral. But if the message is that hate won’t win, I think we’re proving that and we have to say it loudly and clearly and stand up for those who are being attacked because one day it might be us,” she told MSNBC.

“And I know that everything that I felt the day that Lana Theis accused me of being a groomer and sexualizing children is that much worse for a trans kid who was getting attacked every single day who just wants to go to school and have friends and get through the day,” she added.

“The response has been overwhelming. And my hope is that other white women like me who are doing okay, are the ones to stand up and put an end to this because it won’t unless we do,” she said.

The Independent has reached out to Ms Theis for comment.

Tbrennjr96 on April 20th, 2022 at 19:32 UTC »

Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was indicted on federal charges of structuring bank withdrawals after prosecutors alleged Hastert had molested at least four boys as young as 14 and attempted to compensate his victims and subsequently conceal the transactions. Hastert eventually admitted that he sexually abused the boys whom he had coached decades earlier, and was sentenced to fifteen months in prison.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/us/dennis-hastert-released.html

Republican Tim Nolan, chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Kentucky, pled guilty to child sex trafficking and on February 11, 2018 he was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/05/03/former-judge-tim-nolan-could-sentenced-today-more-drama-could-get-way/577947002/

Republican state Senator Ralph Shortey was indicted on four counts of human trafficking and child pornography. In November 2017, he pleaded guilty to one count of child sex trafficking in exchange for the dropping of the other charges.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/11/20/former-oklahoma-state-senator-admits-to-child-sex-trafficking-while-in-office/

Republican Minnesota State Representative Jim Knoblach Drops Out Of Race After Daughter Says He Molested Her For More Than Ten Years 22 Sep 2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/22/lawmaker-quits-race-after-daughter-says-he-molested-her-more-than-decade/?utm_term=.8ac8527c7f43

Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.

https://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/sops/flyer.jsf?personId=28587

Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

http://www.lanternproject.org.uk/library/child-abuse-arrests-and-court-cases/child-abuse-arrests-trials-and-proceedings/ex-county-commissioner-admits-sexual-abuse-of-girl/

Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.

http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20120426/NEWS90/204260334

Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_Misla_Aldarondo

Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Giordano

Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.

http://archive.easyreadernews.com/archives/news2001/0621/rb%20Shortridge.php

Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, a notable racist, had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond

Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/nyregion/embroiled-first-selectman-takes-leave.html

Republican Congressman Donald “Buz” Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/25/us/teen-ager-in-ohio-testifies-to-sex-with-a-congressman.html

Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/04/24/gop-activist-admits-to-child-porn/5af2adf0-bec8-4a10-b061-014de679422a/?utm_term=.d7ebcbf4f92b

Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.

http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=437

Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.

https://www.westword.com/news/randy-ankeney-suit-that-could-free-thousands-of-prisoners-headed-to-state-supreme-court-6054115

Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Crane

Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/02/opinion/journal-beverly-russell-s-prayers.html

Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bauman

Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.

http://www.njherald.com/article/20060510/ARTICLE/305109971

Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. “Republican Marty”), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

https://www.arktimes.com/TheHoglawyer/archives/2007/08/28/the-latest-republican-sex-scandals-plural---more-of-the-same

Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/06/us/politics-the-senate-maine-candidate-again-faces-1990-child-sex-accusation.html

Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

http://www.thedp.com/article/2004/01/brother_stephen_convicted_of_soliciting_sex

Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.

https://www.houstonpress.com/news/jon-matthews-conservative-talk-show-host-and-sex-offender-pulled-from-kpfts-prison-show-6740755

Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.

https://culteducation.com/group/1255-false-memories/6514-man-in-notorious-sex-case-finishes-term.html

Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.

https://www.semissourian.com/story/57773.html

Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.

https://www.arktimes.com/TheHoglawyer/archives/2007/08/28/the-latest-republican-sex-scandals-plural---more-of-the-same

Republican politician Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2002/6/21/23202/Tennessee-Legislator-Commits-Suicide.aspx

Republican Kentucky state Representative & pastor Dan Johnson, who committed suicide after an exposé revealed his serial lies, suspected arson, criminal church, racism, accused rape of a teen, and more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Johnson_%28Kentucky_politician%29

imlookingatarhino on April 20th, 2022 at 17:09 UTC »

Hey that's my state senator

tinspoons on April 20th, 2022 at 16:04 UTC »

The Dem messaging on this should be loud, clear and frequent that it is NOT okay to use this language and how inaccurate and hateful it is.

Qanon rhetoric has already been far too accepted and normalized and if we don't push back ASAP, we will have a bunch more MTGs in office that will burn this country to the ground.