Larry Elder Didn't 'Wave' Gun During Fight With Ex, Merely Made Sure It Was Loaded (Allegedly)

What is it with GOP candidates being terrible to women? Allegedly?

With California's recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom coming up on September 14 (make sure you vote, California!), the late-August surprise has become a factor, maybe, as the former fiancee of Republican candidate Larry Elder has alleged that he threatened her by displaying a gun during an argument in 2015. Alexandra Datig, who in addition to dating Elder also worked as the producer of his radio show for a time, said that she ended their engagement after the incident, during which she says he was high on pots.

Politico broke the story yesterday ; the Los Angeles Times also reports that Datig had recounted the incident in an interview last week, and that she had emailed her attorney and others about a month after the incident to ask for advice on dealing with Elder.

Datig, Politico says,

portrayed him as a marijuana user who would often become threatening or insistent with her, including in his repeated demands that she get a "Larry's Girl" tattoo to show her devotion to him.

The alleged gun incident occurred in the midst of a heated conversation as their relationship was unraveling, according to Datig. "He was in the bedroom, and I was standing by the door," she said. "We talked to each other.'' He became silent, she said, and then slowly "walked over to the nightstand, opened the door, took out the gun,'' a .45 pistol.

"And he checked if it was loaded — while I was talking,'' she said. "He wanted to make sure I saw that he had it."

"It was an act of silent scorn — and anger,'' she said.

He seems nice.

Elder yesterday released a statement that sort of denies the accusation, or at least the line in the Politico story that says he "waved" a gun at Datig. It's a really classic example of the artful non-denial denial:  

"I have never brandished a gun at anyone," Elder said. "I grew up in South Central; I know exactly how destructive this type of behavior is. It's not me, and everyone who knows me knows it's not me. These are salacious allegations."

That word "brandished" is doing a lot of work there; as the LA Times points out, the statement "did not address the rest of the specifics of Datig's complaint, or whether he had ever examined his gun during an argument with her." And no, the campaign didn't get back to the Times when it asked for clarification on that point.

Isn't the English language a wonderfully precise and slippery thing?

The Times notes that Datig specified in her interview last week that Elder hadn't "waved" the gun, but rather had opened the revolver to check that there were bullets in the cylinder, and to make sure she saw it was loaded. After the story broke yesterday, she again confirmed to the Times there had been no waving.

Datig is now a political blogger, and told Politico that she had come forward despite having signed a non-disclosure agreement because she feels there's "too much at stake" in the recall election; she has endorsed the second most prominent Republican running in the recall, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer.

Datig also said that Elder had

pressured her to sign a non-disclosure agreement after being informed by Elder's assistant that "all Larry's girlfriends did,'' she said, in an interview with POLITICO. She complied, saying she was "terrified … and I ran for my life.''

In addition to the alleged gun-not-pointing-but-checking incident, Datig says Elder was just a generally awful guy who pressured her to get a tattoo reading "Larry's Girl," which Politico notes he "urged her" to design to look like the Superman logo. Ick.

She agreed to get it — after he said he would get an accompanying tattoo declaring his love for her, she said. "He never did,'' she said.

And she didn't speak up when a large nude portrait of her with the tattoo on her lower back was displayed in their home for visitors to see, Datig said.

And yes, she showed the photo to Politico, so that happened. She also says that Elder constantly smoked weed, and shared a bizarre phone video in which he claimed to have introduced rapper Snoop Dogg to "the evil weed… I taught him everything he knows...I'm the one who made him what he is, I can't believe he turned his back on me, motherfucker." Politico posts that video in the article. She said that she asked Elder to not smoke the stuff around her since she feared it would endanger her sobriety, but he never cut down.

He sounds like a terrific libertarian guy who won't let anyone tell him how to live his life, not even if he's engaged to them.

Datig says that while she'd like to see Newsom recalled and Faulconer become governor, if it's a choice between Elder and Newsom,

"Gavin Newsom is the devil you know. Larry Elder is the devil you think you know."

"Larry Elder is a brand,'' she said, "but If Larry Elder becomes the governor of the state of California, it will be a disaster.''

But come now, what are the odds that California Republicans would flock to support a misogynist media figure who's actually far nastier than his public persona?

[ Politico / LAT / Photo:  Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons License 2.0 ]

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