Today in Republican Men Being Gross AF

[Content Note: Misogyny; white supremacy; sexual harassment.]

#1: Rep. Trent Franks.

Trent Franks, an extremely conservative Congressman from Arizona, will resign after reports that he made two former female staffers "feel uncomfortable" by asking them if they would be surrogates for his child.

Whut.

To be honest, I'm not even sure from reports if it was a serious request, and he was literally treating his female staffers like potential incubators (an entirely expected disposition toward women from an anti-choice legislator), or if it was a Top Ten revolting attempt at soliciting sex.

Either way: Gross AF.

#2: Erik Prince.

Founder of Blackwater mercenary outfit and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Erik Prince is a real piece of shit in at least a dozen different ways. Even by the impossibly low standards he's already set, this is really something:

Erik Prince has been in the news a lot lately. In his book, he explains the kind of man he is: the kind who impregnates his children's nanny while his wife is dying of cancer. https://t.co/Ih8Lapd1pj pic.twitter.com/gX7Ckg0Dfg

— Elise Jordan (@Elise_Jordan) December 7, 2017

[If you can't view the screen cap embedded in the tweet, it is an excerpt from Prince's book, in which he details how difficult his life was when his wife got cancer. Caring for their four children was "exhausting," and he never got laid. So he "found comfort in the arms of a woman named Joanna Houck, who had worked as our nanny in Michigan. In mid-2002, when we all moved back to Virginia, she was hired to perform administrative functions at our Moyock facilities. She became pregnant before Joan died."]

There is literally not a single person affiliated with the Trump administration even distantly who is not a vile gremlin. Gross AF.

#3: Rep. Blake Farenthold.

Blake Farenthold, a conservative Congressman from Texas, was recently reported to have used taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment claim brought Lauren Greene, his former communications director, after she alleged gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and creating a hostile work environment.

Now, the House Ethics Committee has launched an investigation "over allegations that he sexually harassed a former aide and then retaliated against her when she complained about it. ...The ethics panel had reached out to interview Greene more than a year ago. But Greene, who has tried to move on with her life since leaving Farenthold's office, declined to participate, hoping to put the matter behind her. However, after Greene spoke with POLITICO and CNN this week about being blackballed following her allegations, the Ethics Committee reached out again."

It wasn't just that Farenthold harassed her and then paid for her silence; it's that he then apparently tried to ruin her career.

This fucking guy. Gross AF.

#4: Roy Moore.

Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore is a truly detestable specimen. He is a serial sexual abuser, a misogynist, a homophobe, a Christian supremacist, and, of course, a white supremacist.

At Moore's Florence rally, the former judge outlined all the wrongs he sees in Washington and "spiritual wickedness in high places." He warned of "the awful calamity of abortion and sodomy and perverse behavior and murders and shootings and road rage" as "a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins."

In response to a question from one of the only African Americans in the audience — who asked when Moore thought America was last "great" — Moore acknowledged the nation's history of racial divisions, but said: "I think it was great at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery — they cared for one another… Our families were strong, our country had a direction."

At the same event, Moore referred to Native Americans and Asian Americans as "reds and yellows," and earlier this year he suggested the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were divine punishment.

"Even though we had slavery." This guy is a catastrophic wreck of humanity with rancid shit where his decency should be.

The audience member who asked that very clever question is incredibly brave.

And you know what Moore is: Gross AF.

#5: Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence are still the sitting president and vice-president of this nation. The former is a confessed serial sex abuser and unapologetic rape apologist who publicly accuses women who report being victimized of lying. The latter is a patriarchal nightmare creep who brags about never being alone with any women beside his wife, thus reinforcing narratives about men being unable to control their sexual urges and women being obliged to tame them.

They are both gross AF.