Updated on December 12, 2017.
A Republican national committeewoman in the Midwest resigned Monday over the RNC’s financial backing for Roy Moore, the GOP’s candidate for a vacancy in the U.S. Senate. Moore’s campaign in Alabama has been beset by accusations that he committed sexual misconduct and pursued relationships with underage girls. But while Joyce Simmons of Nebraska wants her party to keep away from Moore, her Vermont counterpart has no such compunction.
“I strongly disagree with the recent RNC financial support directed to the Alabama Republican Party for use in the Roy Moore race,” Simmons wrote in an email to the RNC. “There is much I could say about this situation, but I will defer to this weekend’s comments by Senator Shelby.”
Republican Richard Shelby, Alabama’s senior senator, said that his state deserved a better candidate and that he cast an absentee write-in vote in tomorrow’s special election.
Vermont Republican National Committeewoman Suzanne Butterfield of Gaysville* told Seven Days that she stands behind Moore.
“If this stuff were accurate, it would have come out years ago,” Butterfield said. “I think it’s a smear campaign.”
At least eight women have accused Moore of misconduct or assault. Their allegations have been corroborated by other witnesses. But after giving inconsistent accounts of his behavior, Moore has settled on “smear campaign” as his hardline defense.
Butterfield’s views are not shared by Republican Gov. Phil Scott.
“Sexual assault and harassment cannot be tolerated and must be taken seriously, with perpetrators being held accountable,” he said in a written statement Tuesday morning. “Roy Moore’s many accusers are believable and therefore I do not support, nor would I advocate for, electing Mr. Moore to the U.S. Senate … I hope partisan politics loses, and common decency prevails in that election.”
A clear statement of principle, but one that failed to address the actual question I asked: “Does the Governor have any comment about Butterfield’s stance? Or on how the VTGOP is representing our state at the RNC?”
On this issue as on others, Scott definitively puts himself at odds with national Republicans and President Donald Trump, but there’s no sign that he is trying to influence his own state party in a moderate, bipartisan direction.
*Correction, December 12, 2017: A previous version of this story misidentified Butterfield’s town of residence.
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Ms. Butterfield lives a very different world (vermont) than the Alabama survivors of Moore’s abuse. Remember that he was a District Attorney, and then a judge and AL Supreme Court judge. In other words, they would be accusing the chief law enforcement officer in their hometown, and then accusing someone in judicial robes, in one of the most conservative, male dominated hierarchical states (and cultures) in our nation. Good luck with that, eh? But what about the FACT that at the time the events they describe were taking place, people at the mall say they had to ban him from the mall? THAT was known, THAT came out. It corroborates their stories.
Ms. Butterfield: Every time you look in a mirror, I hope you shudder at what Donald Trump has done to you and your party, and maybe even your soul.
alleged rapes aside
How can one defend this nasty racist?
He wishes for the days of slavery.
I double above comment-time for this person who is out of touch with modern times to go. I take pride in VT repubs being above the despicable national trends. Vt has a long tradition of socially positive views and fiscal conservative positions and that this person said this is a sad reflection on our VT republican party.
Although some states have statutes of limitations on rape there is no statute of limitation on an accusation. Therefore all accusations should be taken seriously no matter what your party affiliation is. By not taking accusations seriously you are the root of the problem. As far as Ray Moore goes, the accusations against him involve children whether it was 10 years ago 30 years ago 40 years ago it matters not.
It’s time for the Vermont Republican party to show some courage and remove this woman from her position. Her position on this is reprehensible and unless they get rid of her, they are no better than she is.
I suspect she’s quite quick to believe all the accusations against any Democratic politician. It’s party before morals, party before country for Ms. Butterfield.
Nice double standard. Good thing for Moore he’s not a democrat or he’d have been gone by now. We certainly are a nation of ass-grabbers. Flag-wrapped ass-grabbers.
I’m with Ernie on this one. This Republican committewoman must have lived a charmed life if she has nothing in her background that she has buried in order to get on with survival. Most women of my generation had all their buried stories come roaring back after Trump’s video with Billy Bush got aired. Women I’ve known for years were in terrible shape after the disclosure as they had to re-process what they had experienced and suppressed for years. I finally divulged that I had been raped twice, and couldn’t even count the number of the harassments I suffered as a woman lawyer in the late 1970s. There weren’t a lot of us around, and the treatment we received was execrable. Imagine being a teenager and being harassed by the district attorney, for goodness sake. Who do you report it to???? Only a Republican denier could find this long silence suspicious. The #MeToo movement has generally been good for this country, but if people deny the veracity of women’s stories now, it is cruel and heartless. Oh, I just described the Republican party. Sorry.
People in VT wringing their hands over Trump and Moore, saying WHAT CAN WE DO? can get busy and vote to defeat all Republicans until the party reforms itself. VT National Committeewoman supports Moore and Trump. She was chosen by those nice VT Republicans. NOT nice at all! Reject the party, the agenda, and the candidates no matter how nice they seem.
Despicable that this Vermont Republican endorses a sexual predator of minors (and the predator in the White House), and her lame defense that it would have come up years ago shows her complete and utter detachment to the fact that victims often stay quiet about their abuser for years, sometimes carrying it to their graves, as they are often conflicted with bringing back the trauma and PTSD in revisiting the abuse, the reprisals and being made an outcast by family members and community members who do not want to deal with it, and the fear of confronting their abuser. But obviously Butterfield relies on the same level of denial, lack of empathy and cognitive dissonance on this issue that allows her to endorse all of the other truly harmful, reckless and destructive policies being carried out by this Congress and this President. Truly shameful.
I have a friend right here in Vermont who decided to come out publicly and speak about the fact that she was raped over 40 years ago by her college professor while in grad school. She had kept it quiet all these years, due to the severe trauma of what she went through, but seeing all of the women across this nation who are finding the courage and support to hold their abusers accountable, she decided to do the same. Why is Suzanne Butterfield incapable of accepting that reality, that victims sometimes find it severely painful and difficult to talk about their abuse?
And does Butterfield endorse the fact that Roy Moore put giant replicas of the Ten Commandments in his court house when he was a judge?
Upton Sinclair said it best, over 80 years ago: “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross”.