Sixth District Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte called Donald Trump statements objectifying women and sexual assault “reprehensible.”
Democratic opponent Kai Degner is pressing the incumbent to do a lot more.
“Mr. Goodlatte still has not denounced Trump’s offensive comments about veterans and Senator McCain, people with disabilities, or American citizens with Mexican heritage. I am glad he draws the line at sexual assault against women,” said Degner, a Harrisonburg City Council member challenging Goodlatte in the Sixth, which covers a wide swath of Western Virginia, from Roanoke and Lynchburg to Front Royal.
Goodlatte, running for a 13th term in Congress, issued a brief statement on the comments from Trump, dating to a 2005 conversation caught on video in which the GOP presidential nominee bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with married women.
“Mr. Trump’s comments are reprehensible and rightly deserve to be condemned. All women should be treated with respect and these highly inappropriate comments are very disappointing,” Goodlatte said in the statement, stopping well short of condemning the candidate, or withdrawing his endorsement, as a growing list of prominent Republicans have done in the fallout of the growing scandal.
Degner issued a statement in the immediate aftermath of the news on the Trump comments breaking on Friday: “I don’t need to be Republican to apologize for Trump’s comments about women. I apologize as a man.”
After the Goodlatte statement, Degner released a second comment.
“As usual, Bob Goodlatte follows his party’s establishment leaders before giving a response – even regarding sexual assault against women. I wish we had a congressman who would lead on standing up for women, not wait for permission from Paul Ryan to issue a weak two-sentence statement,” Degner said.
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