This morning Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), the longest-serving member of the House, told The Mildred Gaddis Show that he’s “retiring today.” Conyers also said he backs his son, John Conyers III, as his replacement, though CNN reports his grandson might also be running for the seat.
In the weeks since Buzzfeed broke the story of Conyers settling “a wrongful dismissal complaint in 2015 with a former employee who alleged she was fired because she would not ‘succumb to [his] sexual advances,'”—a story that also revealed fucked up facts about Congress’ unfair sexual harassment reporting system, e.g., the victim of harassment has to pay for her own lawyer but tax payers foot the bill for the Congressman—Conyers has faced two more sexual harassment accusations from former staffers.
Following these accusations, House minority leader Nanci Pelosi eventually asked Conyers to step down, as did Rep. James E. Clyburn.
Seattle’s Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who served with Conyers on the House Judiciary Committee, demanded his resignation a week ago, saying there should be “‘zero tolerance’ for sexual harassment.”
While Democrats appear to be taking sexual harassment allegations seriously—even those filed against congressmen with so much power and sway they were considered “untouchable”—yesterday Donald Trump endorsed an alleged child molester (and confirmed bigot/theocrat/racist) running for the Senate in Alabama. Shortly thereafter, the RNC renewed their financial support of Roy Moore’s campaign. The RealClearPolitics average has him up by 1.5 points in the polls, and many—but not all—signs point to his winning the seat.
