Posted on 12/08/2017 12:46:11 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., announced Friday that he is resigning from Congress effective immediately instead of waiting until the end of January.
Franks said Thursday he would leave next month after it emerged that he discussed surrogate parenthood with two female staffers — some reports said he asked them directly to be a surrogate mother. But in a Friday a statement, Franks said his wife was admitted to a hospital Thursday night due to a recurring health issue, and that Friday would be his last day as a sitting member of Congress.
"Last night, my wife was admitted to the hospital in Washington, D.C. due to an ongoing ailment," Franks said. "After discussing options with my family, we came to the conclusion that the best thing for our family now would be for me to tender my previous resignation effective today, December 8th, 2017."
Franks said he discussed surrogacy with his staff because he and his wife have suffered from infertility, and were looking to have a third child.
"Due to my familiarity and experience with the process of surrogacy, I clearly became insensitive as to how the discussion of such an intensely personal topic might affect others," Franks said. "I have recently learned that the Ethics Committee is reviewing an inquiry regarding my discussion of surrogacy with two previous female subordinates, making each feel uncomfortable. I deeply regret that my discussion of this option and process in the workplace caused distress."
"But in the midst of this current cultural and media climate, I am deeply convinced I would be unable to complete a fair House Ethics investigation before distorted and sensationalized versions of this story would put me, my family, my staff, and my noble colleagues in the House of Representatives through hyperbolized public excoriation," Franks said, saying then that he would remain in Congress for most of the next two months. "It is with the greatest sadness, that for the sake of the causes I deeply love, I must now step back from the battle I have spent over three decades fighting."
Franks had served in Congress since 2003 and was a member of the House Freedom Caucus.
Are you trying to tell me I should stop asking my young female employees to have my babies? Thanks for the head’s up.
“Due to my familiarity and experience with the process of surrogacy, I clearly became insensitive as to how the discussion of such an intensely personal topic might affect others”
What he likely said to the young staffers. “Hey sweetie, wanna have my baby?” just a little bit insensitive.
I dont care that was sarcasm.
Guys a pig.You dont ask a staffer to have your kid. There are proper channels and that aint one.
My thoughts too, since when asking if they wanted to be a surrogate now amounts to sexual harassment?
not according to #34 and # 36
It may not be sexual harassment, but it is harassment. Any request of your employees that gets into intensely personal territory is out of bounds unless you’ve got a really good back story (like if they’d registered somewhere as interested in surrogacy, and he found their names in his own search for a surrogate, then maybe, if the discussion is handled perfectly, you can get away with it).
The old staff too!
It depends on how you ask. If it's a business deal with payment for surrogacy, and insemination via turkey baster under medical conditions, I'd say it's a poorly presented business opportunity.
If it's an excuse for injection by sexual contact with contract details to be worked out if that "takes", it's a really gross form of sexual harassment, IMHO.
Suppose it all depends on how he asked. At this time we dont know, do we ?
The man did something that was - awkward, maybe inappropriate, but to confuse this with sexual predatory activity is pretty much a stretch. Obviously, the staff members had the option of saying “no”, but this is not in and of itself a cause for labeling someone a “predator”. It only becomes predatory if the request becomes a demand, repeated several times, coupled with threats of discharge from other duties.
Something else is going on here.
Franks was born in 1957, and married his wife when he was 23, in 1980. Assuming she is roughly his age, or only a little younger, and since they have two children, this request came when they were well into middle age, and sounds rather suspicious.
Why offer so much? Was that a cover up after the fact? Surrogates are available for less... I don’t know how much less, but I would hazard a guess that it’s in the 50K range, since you’re laid up for the better part of a year, and it’s a very personal job.
What in the world is wrong with discussing surrogate mothers? I don’t think it’s a good thing, but he and his wife were okay with it, and he obviously knew these women and thought they’d be decent in the family gene pool, so to speak. It’s certainly better than getting somebody off the internet. I don’t know anything about him, and as I say, I’m not a fan of the surrogate mother idea, but I don’t see what the flap is about.
thinking more about it I agree with you.
If it were a serious conversation, and he was saying how his wife was having problems and both of them are looking then it would be OK. Now saying that , if he said want to go bed and be a surrogate then he is another scumbag.
Time will tell us, until then I will await judgement.
The feelings of absolute debasement of having been asked constantly to be a sex slave have lasted even till today...As I remember it...Is there a statute of limitations for filing a suit?
It may make a difference, but it is wrong either way.
So wrong that his district should lose the right representation as they voted?
I’d say no. Personal impregnation is not actual surrogacy anyway.
“Franks said Thursday he would leave next month after it emerged that he discussed surrogate parenthood with two female staffers”
How’s that a problem? Hate to say but I hope there’s more to this than just what’s been said here.
He’s resigning not out of anything that anyone is due more than an apology for, but because the extreme hyperbole of the media has everyone convinced that “guilt” is measured by the “severity of any allegation” and not the veracity of any evidence. It is not due to “guilt” that he resigns, but just to save his family all the extreme negative attention the media will drum up. His resignation is a black mark NOT on his actions, but on the American people and how they have let the media manipulate their opinions.
When has and does the media do this? When doing so serves the political agenda of the parties the media is always aligned with. Yes, don’t be fooled by how the deep state and their media has been outing Liberals lately. They have bigger targets they want that agenda to snare, and its not among their friends.
If his wife was this ill, why didn’t he say so in the first place?
Instead of that surrogate mother stuff? That was creepy.
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