Grothman Keeps Causing Outrage

U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

Another day, another episode of Wisconsin’s Republican Congressman Glenn Grothman sticking his foot in his mouth.

The most recent example came yesterday when he told Channel 58 TV reporter Kathryn Merck that “It is gonna be more difficult to beat somebody who is not Joe Biden. I think it’s going to be a difficult race.”

Republican leaders and the campaign of former president Donald Trump couldn’t be happy with Grothman admitting that Vice-President Kamala Harris will be a tough opponent.

But Grothman was just getting warmed up. He then noted that Harris hasn’t been “the most articulate candidate,” but “apparently, they feel, or a lot of Democrats feel, they have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.”

In short, the Vice President of the United States, who Grothman just admitted will be tough to beat, is only getting support because of her race. When you’re talking off the cuff, as Grothman often does, contradictions come easily. As do the most bizarre claims.

Some years ago the staunchly right-wing Republican argued that the District of Columbia doesn’t deserve statehood because it doesn’t have any local mining.

And he explained his opposition to equal-pay legislation by saying, “You could argue that money is more important for men.”

And he criticized sex-ed classes because, as Grothman put it, some gay teachers “would like it if more kids became homosexuals.”

Last week Grothman generated a huge controversy with a speech on the floor of Congress declaring that the U.S. needs to go back to 1960, before President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty” took “the purpose out of the man’s life, because now you have a basket of goodies for the mom.”

He went to blame government support for the poor, and “the angry feminist movement” of the 1960s for the “breakdown of the family” in America.

“And if we want to get America back to, say, 1960, where this was almost unheard of, we have to fundamentally change these programs,” Grothman declared.

“So I hope the press corps picks up on this,” he added.

They certainly did.

The New Republic’s story offered this headline: “Republican Rep. Goes on Unhinged Rant About Women ‘Emasculating Men.'”

While the Daily Beast went with this: “GOP Rep Delivers a House Floor Speech Straight Out of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’”

Back in the 1990s, when Grothman ranked as the most conservative member from either party in the Wisconsin Legislature, he was seen as out of the mainstream and was particularly disliked by some of the women members of the Republican caucus. But nowadays he is one of the most successful Republicans in Wisconsin and was ranked in 2020 as most loyal Trump backer in the entire U.S. Congress.

So his musings, for better or worse, are a window into the soul of today’s Republican Party.