GOP Rep. Says He’d ‘Consider’ Dropping Trump If He Said He Liked Raping Women

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) issued an apology on Tuesday night after he hesitated to say he would drop his endorsement of Donald Trump if the Republican nominee told him he liked sexually assaulting women.

During an interview on MSNBC, Chris Hayes pressed Farenthold on what it would take for him to ditch Trump after the congressman defended Trump from the 2005 tape in which the real estate mogul could be heard boasting about grabbing women’s genitals.

“Until he does something so bad to make him worse than Hillary, I’m still in,” Farenthold told Hayes

So Hayes asked, “If someone off the record, in a locker room — this was not in a locker room, it was a workplace — said, ‘I really like raping women,’ would that be locker-room talk?”

“It depends, you don’t know the entire context of all this,” Farenthold replied.

“But you would be fine with that?” Hayes jumped in to ask.

“I’m not here to defend Donald Trump. I don’t like what he said,” Farenthold then responded.

Hayes asked Farenthold again, “If a tape came out with Donald Trump saying that, saying ‘I really like to rape women,’ you would continue to endorse him?”

“That would be bad. And I would have to consider — I’d to consider it,” the congressman answered. “But again, we’re talking about what Donald Trump said 10 years ago as opposed to what Hillary Clinton has done in the past two or three years.”

Farenhold later apologized for his answers in a series of tweets saying that he does not condone rape.

Watch a clip of the interview via Slate:

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. TrUmp said He could Rape womEn because he’s famous, Not that hE likeS raping. Because he bigly respectful of the ladieS thaT follow him ArounD like BitChes in heat.

  2. That was not balanced.
    Where was the question about Hillary raping women?
    Hmmm?

  3. Farenthold is in the running for worst person in Congress, but he has a lot of competition. More popcorn, please!

  4. Avatar for imkmu3 imkmu3 says:

    And there it is.

  5. Your parody pales in comparison to Donald’s actual words. It is time to retire with dignity, or go full Coulter.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

48 more replies

Participants

Avatar for paulw Avatar for ghost Avatar for jw1 Avatar for charliee Avatar for imkmu3 Avatar for bluestatedon Avatar for krusher Avatar for counter_coulter Avatar for carlosfiance Avatar for dont Avatar for breakingdeadmen Avatar for midnight_rambler Avatar for theghostofeustacetilley Avatar for brendanm Avatar for darrtown Avatar for thermos_hildebrand Avatar for antisachetdethe Avatar for geophile Avatar for firewing2 Avatar for ljb860 Avatar for buttholepunch Avatar for demyankee Avatar for centralasiaexpat Avatar for gregangelo

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: