Florida GOP says Zeigler, accused of rape, can’t be moral leader. OK, now do Trump | Opinion

The Republican Party of Florida is trying mighty hard to wash its hands of one of its leaders, amid sexual-assault allegations.

We’re talking about Florida GOP Chairman Christian Zeigler, now facing a rape investigation.

In an emergency meeting on Sunday, the Florida GOP got tough on one of its own. It stripped him of nearly all his powers. His six-figure salary was reduced to $1. His duties have been transferred to the vice chairman.

The party stopped short of forcing him to step down, but that’s likely to come next. The entire party is set to meet in Tallahassee on Jan. 8 if he hasn’t resigned by then. There’s no mistaking the intentions of Florida Republicans when it comes to Zeigler. They want him out.

He hasn’t been charged. He has denied any wrongdoing. He has, however, been under criminal investigation in Sarasota, where he lives, since October when a woman reported to police that he had sexually assaulted her. That accusation led to the revelation that Zeigler and his wife, Bridget, had sex with the alleged victim over a year ago.

Double standard

A bisexual sex scandal with Zeigler, his wife and another woman? The accusations of hypocrisy were quick and inevitable, and the pressure for him to resign has been building.

That hasn’t been helped by his wife’s situation. Bridget Zeigler, as is well known by now, is a Sarasota School Board member and a co-founder of the right-wing Moms for Liberty, which has pushed for anti-LGBTQ policies in schools. She has refused to step down, despite a vote of the board last week asking her to do so. She cast the only vote against the resolution.

Maybe she and her husband are following the same playbook. He also has refused to step down, despite a unanimous vote against him on Sunday.

Evan Power, the state party’s vice chairman, who is now handling most of Zeigler’s responsibilities, told the New York Times after the meeting that party members see the allegations as serious, especially in a presidential election year, and that they would hamper his ability to raise money.

Then he went on to say, of Zeigler, “You cannot morally lead the Republican Party forward.”

Morally lead. That’s what he said.

Which brings us to Donald Trump. Where is this same sense of outrage by the Florida GOP when it comes to the leader of the national party? There’s a long list of women who have accused him of sexual misconduct, going back to the ‘70s. He’s been found liable in civil court for sexual abuse in the case of E. Jean Carroll, who said he raped her in a department store dressing room in 1996. He boasted of grabbing women’s genitals on that infamous leaked “Access Hollywood” recording in 2005, a hot mic moment that he didn’t deny but instead brushed off as “locker room talk.” He said on “The Howard Stern Show” that he would go backstage during beauty pageants while women were unclothed, saying, “I sort of get away with things like that.”

Trump gets a pass

The claims of sexual misconduct have come from a yoga instructor, Miss Teen USA contestants, a former model, a former reporter for People magazine, a receptionist at Trump Tower, a former campaign staffer, a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” and on and on.

A mountain of allegations. An actual legal finding of sexual misconduct against Trump in the E. Jean Carroll case. But it’s Zeigler that Florida’s GOP can’t stomach?

There have been moments, especially after the “Access Hollywood” recording, that Republicans recoiled publicly against Trump. But in the end, they took him back. Clearly, the money he could raise was irresistible.

In Florida, Republicans now claim to be repulsed by Zeigler, though he has yet to be actually charged with a sexual crime. He may deserve their censure, and certainly the party has the right to choose its best leader. But to say Zeigler can’t be a moral leader of the party while they continue to close their eyes to the many, many allegations against Trump is so ridiculous. It would almost be funny — if it weren’t so dangerous.

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