U.S. (Times Of Ocean)- In running for a state house seat, Robert Regan compared giving up on overturning Donald Trump’s loss in 2020 to what his daughters would do if they were sexually assaulted. In response to a Republican candidate for Michigan’s House of Representatives who made an analogy about the 2020 presidential election involving rape and his daughters, both parties condemned him. The candidate for Michigan’s District 74 seat, Robert Regan, made the comment during a livestreamed panel on Sunday in response to an assertion that it was “too late” to overturn the election results. “That’s kind of like having three daughters. I tell my daughters that rape is inevitable, so lie back and enjoy it,” Regan said. On Wednesday, the Rescue Michigan Coalition’s Facebook page continued to host a video of the panel. After comparing his victory in the Republican primary with the biblical tale of David and Goliath, he noted that his opponents had more financial support. During the stream, Republican activist Amber Harris called Regan’s analogy “shameful.” Harris told her daughters, “Don’t do that.”.
The Michigan Freedom Fund, a conservative group, called 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.”
Kent GOP Chairman Rob VerHeulen and State Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser discussed “comments” made by Regan in a joint statement Tuesday, but didn’t specify what the remarks were.
Mr. Regan’s history of foolish, egregious, and offensive comments includes his most recent one,” Weiser said. We are better than this as a party and I expect better of our candidates as well.” Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, a Democrat representing District 19, chair of the Michigan Progressive Women’s Caucus, condemned Regan’s tweets on Monday.
“Having been in a situation where rape was inevitable, I can promise this man that there is nothing enjoyable about it,” Pohutsky said. “This man is disgusting and I’m hoping HD 74 doesn’t send him to Lansing. I don’t normally say this about people I could end up working with, but he’s horrid.”
In an emailed statement to NBC News on Wednesday, Regan called the backlash against him “villainous attacks.” His comment had been “truncated” and taken out of context.
“In retrospect, knowing now how vicious my attackers could be, I regret using an analogy that could so easily have been taken out of context,” Regan said. “My point was simply this: when there are alleged improprieties, even if the outcome seems inevitable, we must fight back and investigate so that justice can be served, and our votes are not diluted.”
He disputed Weiser and VerHeulen’s statements, saying that neither man contacted him for clarification.
“Now I understand how President Trump felt when he discovered his biggest enemies were in his own political party; and I am not even a Trump endorsed candidate,” Regan said in the statement.
He told MLive on Monday that he doesn’t want to equate a “stolen election” with rape and that his point was more about fighting back, “because nobody likes to be taken advantage of.”
“I’m getting pushback right now because I’m the only one saying we need to decertify the 2020 election. Everyone on that panel said it’s inevitable, let it die, it’s a dead issue, focus on 2022 moving forward,” Regan said. “And I’m like, ‘No, it’s not inevitable. You would never tell a daughter if it’s inevitable you should lie back and enjoy it, ever.’ That’s the context of that story.”
Trump has falsely claimed that voter fraud was responsible for his loss to Joe Biden, even though there is no evidence to support such claims. Former Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, told The Associated Press in December 2020 that there was no evidence of widespread fraud at the Justice Department.