Charles Herbster is running for governor in Nebraska, and he's got a lot going for him — for that particular state, anyway. He's a Republican, he wears a cowboy hat, he is, according to the headline of at least one article, a "bull semen baron," which appears to be related to his actual job and not a nickname he acquired due to an especially specific kink.

He's also been accused of of groping by at least eight women, one of whom is Republican state Sen. Julie Slama, who will likely soon find out just how very seriously men in her party take these kinds of offenses towards women. Slama confirmed the incident after another woman who says she herself was groped by Herbster said she was at the Douglas County Republican Party’s annual Elephant Remembers dinner in 2019 when she saw Herbster reach up Slama's skirt and "touch her inappropriately."

Via The Nebraska Examiner:

Another person attending the 2019 event saw Herbster reach up Slama’s skirt and had told the Examiner about it. That witness and two others said they saw Herbster grope another young woman on her buttocks at the same event.

When the Examiner asked Slama on Monday if the two incidents at the event had been described accurately, and whether Herbster had touched her under her skirt, Slama said: “Yes, confirmed,” but declined to discuss the incidents further.

Six women, including the woman Slama saw being groped at the Elephant Remembers dinner, told the Nebraska Examiner that Herbster touched them inappropriately when they were saying hello or goodbye to him, or when they were posing for a photograph by his side.

The women said Herbster groped them on their buttocks, outside of their clothes, during political events or beauty pageants. Each woman said she was grabbed, not inadvertently grazed, by Herbster.

A seventh woman said Herbster once cornered her privately and kissed her forcibly.

Several of these women, reportedly, were in their late teens at the time they say they were groped by Herbster. Slama was 22. (Yes, she's a 25-year-old state senator, appointed to fill out a retired senator's term in January 2019.)

Hal Daub, the Republican former mayor of Omaha, claimed that Herbster did nothing wrong with regard to Slama, because "She was trying to attract Herbster's attention because she was trying to get reelected in her own right" — which he imagines made it entirely acceptable for him to reach up her skirt and touch her. Surely he does that to men who are trying to get reelected as well.

Daub also responded to the accusation by literally saying "I'd like to ask her what she was wearing." Slama tweeted a picture of the relatively conservative dress she was wearing that night in response, not that it should matter. She could have been wearing a dress made of Saran wrap and it still would not have been acceptable for Herbster to grope her without her consent.

Daub, however, remained confused about why groping her would have been a problem:

Via KETV:

When told that Slama tweeted a picture of the dress that she was wearing at the event, Daub told KETV NewsWatch 7, "How would any of us know what dress she was wearing?"

"She said she was groped. Well, what does that mean? Did somebody ask? Did any of the reporters ask? Maybe she was, I don't know," Daub said.

"I think the point that she was trying to make was it didn't matter what she was wearing," Petersen said.
"What does that mean?" Daub said.

"That if this did happen, it shouldn't matter what she was wearing," Petersen said.

"If it did happen, is it her word and her picture for her handler who advised her in her legislative race, and who's the governor's advisor and Pillen's advisor? Is that the politics of all this? You've got to think about how this is all happening and why now. Her credibility by inviting him to her wedding, by taking her his campaign contribution ... doesn't this raise the question about the credibility of her accusation?" Daub said.

No, no it does not.

All 13 women in the the Nebraska state Senate signed a joint bipartisan statement in support of Slama, reading, "Sexual assault is despicable and damaging. This is not an issue of politics, this is an issue of character and basic human decency. Charles Herbster’s behavior is completely unacceptable for anyone, especially someone seeking a public office of authority and trust."

“For over thirty years, I’ve employed hundreds of people. I’ve respected and empowered women to run my company, my farm and now my campaign. Not once has my integrity EVER been challenged in this manner,” Herbster responded in a statement of his own, adding, "They did it with Brett Kavanaugh. They certainly did it with Donald J. Trump and now they’re trying to do it with Charles W. Herbster.”

To be clear, Donald J. Trump did it to himself, as he literally bragged about grabbing women "by the pussy" without their consent and also going into the Miss Teen USA locker room to look at naked underage girls.

Now we'll see just how seriously the Republican menfolk take it, once again.

[Nebraska Examiner]

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