|
|
|
 |
|
FILE -
In this
Tuesday,
May 7,
2019,
photo,
Republican
Michigan
Sen.
Lana
Theis
speaks
with
reporters
in
Lansing,
Mich.
Theis
opened a
Michigan
Senate
session
with an
invocation
by
claiming
children
are
being
attacked
by
"forces"
that
want to
indoctrinate
them
with
ideas
their
parents
do not
support.
(AP
Photo/David
Eggert,
File) |
|
Michigan
lawmaker's
forceful
speech
rebuts
'grooming'
attack
By DAVID
EGGERT
apnews.com
LANSING,
MI -
Republican
Sen.
Lana
Theis
opened a
Michigan
Senate
session
with an
invocation
by
claiming
children
are
being
attacked
by
“forces”
that
want to
indoctrinate
them
with
ideas
their
parents
do not
support.
Three
Democrats
walked
out of
last
week’s
meeting
to
protest
her
apparent
reference
to how
schools
address
sexual
orientation
and
gender
identity
and
critical
race
theory.
Within
days,
one who
tweeted
criticism
of the
prayer
was
targeted
by Theis
in a
fundraising
email.
Theis
called
Sen.
Mallory
McMorrow
a
liberal
social
media
“troll”
and
accused
her of
wanting
to
“groom”
and
“sexualize”
kindergartners
and
teach
“that
8-year-olds
are
responsible
for
slavery.”
McMorrow
responded
Tuesday
with a
forceful,
impassioned
floor
speech
that
resonated
nationwide.
“I am a
straight,
white,
Christian,
married,
suburban
mom” who
wants
“every
kid to
feel
seen,
heard
and
supported
— not
marginalized
and
targeted
because
they are
not
straight,
white
and
Christian,”
she
said.
The
salvos
were
among
the
latest
to draw
widespread
attention
in the
country’s
ongoing
culture
wars, as
conservatives
push to
make
education
a
political
wedge
issue.
They
have
said
they are
trying
to
prevent
“grooming,”
a term
used to
describe
how sex
offenders
initiate
contact
with
their
victims.
“What a
horrible
thing to
say to
somebody
and not
care
about
the
consequences,”
McMorrow
told
reporters
Wednesday.
Theis,
who
declined
to speak
after
the
session,
released
a
statement
in which
she did
not
apologize.
She
again
accused
Democrats
of
trying
to
undermine
parents
as the
primary
decision-makers
in their
child’s
education.
McMorrow’s
5-minute
speech
found an
engaged
audience
on
social
media.
The
video
racked
up
millions
of views
across
Twitter,
Facebook
and
Instagram.
A tweet
thread
from
McMorrow
about
her
remarks
amassed
some
74,000
retweets.
Prominent
Democrats
outside
Michigan
including
Hillary
Clinton
urged
their
social
media
followers
to
watch,
as did
political
groups
such as
the
pro-Democratic
PAC
Meidas
Touch,
the
anti-Trump
PAC The
Lincoln
Project
and the
popular
liberal
meme
page
Occupy
Democrats.
The
video
also was
shared
online
by
activists,
celebrities
and
journalists
including
Maria
Shriver,
Mia
Farrow,
MSNBC’s
Joe
Scarborough
and
CNN’s
Don
Lemon.
McMorrow,
who said
she
thought
of most
of the
speech
while
giving
her
daughter
a bath,
said a
conservative
Christian
woman
from
Texas
and a
gay man
who grew
up in
rural
Indiana
were
among
those
who
contacted
her
office
to thank
her.
Asked
why the
speech
resonated,
McMorrow
said:
“There
is a
difference
between
politics
and
outright
hate. I
think
people
are
frustrated
that
elected
officials
haven’t
done
enough
to call
that
out,
that
maybe
Democrats
are
afraid
of
talking
about
religion
and
faith
openly
and
honestly
and
calling
hate
what it
is. I
think we
have
to.”
Accusations
of
grooming
and
pedophilia
are
“straight
out of
the
QAnon
playbook,”
she
said,
referring
to the
conspiracy
theory.
She
noted
how the
debunked
“pizzagate”
conspiracy
theory
ended
with
real-world
consequences
when a
man
fired
his
assault
rifle
inside a
Washington,
D.C.,
restaurant.
She said
she has
“felt
incredibly
frustrated
that
people
have
been
weaponizing
religion
and
Christianity
and
frankly
white,
suburban
moms and
claiming
to speak
on
behalf
of all
of us.
... They
don’t.”
Both
McMorrow,
of Royal
Oak, and
Theis,
of
Brighton,
are up
for
reelection
in
different
districts.
Former
President
Donald
Trump is
backing
a
primary
challenger
over
Theis
after a
Republican-led
legislative
committee
she sits
on
determined
there
was no
widespread
or
systemic
fraud
when Joe
Biden
won
Michigan
in 2020.
Republicans’
use of
“grooming”
rhetoric
comes as
one of
their
own,
former
state
House
Speaker
Lee
Chatfield,
is under
investigation
for
allegedly
sexually
assaulting
his
future
sister-in-law
starting
when she
was a
minor.
___
Associated
Press
reporter
Ali
Swenson
in New
York
contributed
to this
report.
Advertise With Us:

Certified Minority Business Enterprise

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|