Businessman Bill Berrien entered the race to be the Republican nominee for Wisconsin governor a little less than three months ago. He tried awfully hard to win Trump's support, kissing Trump's big orange ass every chance he could. He went so far as to propose interstate trade wars with tariffs.
It was all in vain though, because Berrien would never pass MAGA's purity tests. He had donated to Nicki Haley when she was running for president, criticized Trump's handling of the COVID pandemic, and supported rank choice voting. But all that is small potatoes compared to his latest blunder.
Like most Republicans, MAGA or not, Berrien took a pro-trad family and was against providing health care or basic respect to trans people. At least, that's what he said publicly. What he did privately was a whole other story:
The Journal Sentinel reported this week revealed that, while campaigning as a conservative leader who stands up for family values who said transgender individuals are engaged in "radical social experimentation," Berrien followed a transgender porn star on Medium.com named Jiz Lee. He also was following publications called "Sexography" and "Polyamory Today," links that he scrubbed after being contacted by the Journal Sentinel.
With that one bit of news, he proved himself a uniter, getting both the right and left to hate him. Jiz Lee, the trans porn star he liked to visit had something to say about Berrien's hypocrisy:
It's okay to follow trans porn stars. It's okay to read articles about sex and relationships. What's not okay is the hypocrisy of backing forceful legislation that restricts what people, trans and otherwise, can do with their own bodies. That is shameful.
When the news first broke, Berrien got busy scrubbing his online history and trying to bluster his way through it. Y'know, just like Trump would have done. However, within days, Berrien saw the writing on the wall and on Friday, announced that he was dropping out of the race, but not without blaming the damn liberal media first:
“And yet, as my campaign was gaining traction and emboldened by that optimistic vision, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published this week two articles clearly targeted to force me out of the race. I consider myself very intellectually curious and, as a leader in business and hoped-for leader in politics, I thought it was a strength to read very widely and show a broad intellectual interest. I listen to podcasts every day on my way to work. I am constantly trying to take in new information, trying to learn something new. I follow over 5,000 people across so many platforms. I subscribe to over 100 newsletters. And I have hit the ‘like’ button on perhaps 20,000 different articles or postings. Yet the media cherry-picked a handful of individuals and written articles that came across my feed that I then followed (without the faintest clue as to an author’s lifestyle choices!) 6 or 7 years ago, and painted a salacious and sensational picture that was clearly targeted to force me out of this governor race. It was a major attack piece, and we confirmed opposition research started in January of this year, if not earlier.
“And for what? For reading! Nothing illegal, nothing unethical, and nothing immoral. Just reading. Wouldn’t you want your political and business leaders (and all of society, frankly) to be widely read and thoughtful and aware of different perspectives and ideas? Yet, when a supposedly major metropolitan newspaper condemns someone for reading, we have ourselves a problem.
“Come on, Wisconsin. We can do better in our politics here. Let’s focus on the big ideas, the bright future that is so possible. Let’s get away from these personal and politically targeted attacks.
Yeah, and I bet his daddy subscribed to Playboy and Penthouse for the articles and didn't even notice all those nude photos in them, too.
Berrien can lie to himself all he wants, but the rest of the world knows that the problem wasn't that he visited those sites. The problem was his hypocrisy. And in that sense, he did actually emulate President Pedo.
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