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Farenthold Blames ‘F-Tards’ for His Downfall

August 19, 2018 at 10:43 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Four months after abruptly quitting Congress amid a sexual harassment scandal, former Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) still doesn’t think he did anything wrong,” according to the HuffPost, which obtained a copy of his deposition in a lawsuit over his new job.

“In fact, the former GOP lawmaker says he ‘took a bullet for the team’ by resigning. He insists he’s right not to repay $84,000 in taxpayer money he spent on a sexual harassment settlement. He ripped the House Ethics Committee for not caring about facts. And he blames ‘f-tards’ and the Me Too movement for driving him out of a job.”

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Farenthold Won’t Pay Back Settlement

May 15, 2018 at 2:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX), the disgraced Texas Republican who resigned last month in the aftermath of a sexual harassment settlement, told ABC News that he has no intention of repaying an $84,000 sexual harassment settlement funded by taxpayers.

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Why Blake Farenthold Resigned So Abrubtly

April 17, 2018 at 5:10 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

HuffPost: “The House Ethics Committee was about to rule against Farenthold in its investigation into whether he sexually harassed members of his staff, used official money for campaign purposes and lied in previous testimony to the committee.”

“The committee gave Farenthold a heads-up about its coming decision… By stepping down, Farenthold was able to avoid whatever punishment the committee would have handed down.”

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold


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Farenthold Quit Without Paying Back Settlement

April 13, 2018 at 11:42 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The House Ethics Committee called for former Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) to honor his pledge to repay an $84,000 taxpayer settlement to end a sexual harassment case, the Houston Chronicle reports.

“The bipartisan committee, in a unanimous statement, said that while it no longer has jurisdiction over the Corpus Christi Republican, it encouraged him ‘in the strongest possible terms’ to make good on his promise to pay back the settlement stemming from a 2015 sexual harassment case brought by Lauren Greene, a former staffer in his Washington office.”

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Farenthold Resigns from Congress

April 6, 2018 at 4:51 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) abruptly resigned from his seat in the House of Representative on Friday afternoon, the Dallas Morning News reports.

Texas Tribune: “The decision marks the capstone of a tumultuous few months for the four-term congressman, who has been dogged by sexual harassment allegations.”

[alert type=”general” dismiss=”no”]Does this mean he’s not paying back the $84,000?[/alert]

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Farenthold May Resign from Congress

March 20, 2018 at 7:51 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) “is considering stepping down from Congress before the end of his term,” Politico reports.

“Farenthold already announced he would not seek re-election in his southeastern Texas district, after Politico reported he settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with $84,000 in taxpayer funds. But he now is on the brink of leaving Congress well before the end of his term, which would allow him to dodge an Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of inappropriate office behavior.”

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Farenthold Has Not Paid Back $84K Settlement

January 3, 2018 at 3:56 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) “has not yet repaid $84,000 in taxpayer money for a settlement reached with a former aide who accused him of sexual harassment and other improper conduct, despite the Texas Republican’s statement late last year saying he would do so,” CNN reports.

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Farenthold Drops Re-Election Bid

December 14, 2017 at 10:11 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) will not run for re-election, an ABC News affiliate reports.

However, the congressman does plan on finishing out his term despite allegations of sexual harassment against him.

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Ex-Farenthold Aide Details Vulgar and Abusive Behavior

December 13, 2017 at 10:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A former senior aide to Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) has approached the House Ethics Committee to share a damning account of working for the Texas Republican, with the intent of describing the congressman as verbally abusive and sexually demeaning — and his congressional office as an intensely hostile environment that drove the aide to physical and emotional distress,” CNN reports.

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Farenthold Defends Settlement of Lawsuit

December 4, 2017 at 2:10 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) told KRIS-TV that he’s going to pay back the money taxpayers spent settling a lawsuit filed against his office by a former employee.

The four-term congressmen said “he was not given a choice in whether to spend his own money, or the taxpayers’, when handling the suit in which former employee Lauren Greene alleged the Congressman, and key staff members, created a hostile work environment and then, retaliated against her when she complained.”

Said Farenthold: “The process is broken.”

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Farenthold Settled Harassment Claim with Taxpayer Funds

December 1, 2017 at 1:52 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) “used taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim brought by his former spokesman — the only known sitting member of Congress to have used a little-known congressional account to pay an accuser,” sources told Politico.

“Lauren Greene, the Texas Republican’s former communications director, sued her boss in December 2014 over allegations of gender discrimination, sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment.”

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Lawmaker Blames ‘Repugnant’ GOP Women for Stalled Bill

July 24, 2017 at 12:24 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

When discussing the stalled GOP effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) told a Texas radio station that he finds it “absolutely repugnant” that “the Senate does not have the courage to do some of the things that every Republican in the Senate promised to do.”

Said Farenhold: “Some of the people that are opposed to this — there are some female senators from the northeast. If it was a guy from south Texas I might ask them to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style.”

Filed Under: Health Care Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

GOP Lawmaker Says DNC Hack May Have Been ‘Inside Job’

May 24, 2017 at 11:29 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) told CNN that the attack of the Democratic National Committee servers may have been done by Democratic staffers.

Said Farenthold: “There’s still some question as to whether the intrusion at the DNC server was an insider job, or whether or not it was the Russians.”

When pressed on this claim, Farenthold said there is proof “circulating on the Internet.”

Filed Under: Democrats Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

June 11, 2016 at 7:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 132 Comments

“With President Trump, I’m ready to get off defense and go on offense. Trump is going to slaughter some sacred cows, and I’m ready for the barbecue.”

— Rep. Brent Farenthold (R-TX), quoted by the Austin American-Statesman.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Blake Farenthold, Donald Trump

Congressman Joked Online About Hitting on Women

December 19, 2014 at 6:59 am EST By Taegan Goddard 13 Comments

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX), “who is being sued by a former employee for sexual harassment, wrote posts about alcohol and female travelers on an online forum geared toward frequent fliers,” the Huffington Post reports.

The comments “were made on the website FlyerTalk from 2006 to 2010, before he was elected to Congress later that year.”

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

Farenthold Sued for Sexually-Charged Workplace

December 16, 2014 at 5:06 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 11 Comments

A former staffer in the office of Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) is suing her old workplace alleging she was illegally fired in a sexually-charged environment after she complained about mistreatment, the National Law Journal reports.

“Lauren Greene, who had served as Farenthold’s new media director and then communications director, alleges her former boss ‘regularly drank to excess’ and once told his executive assistant he had ‘sexual fantasies’ about Greene.”

In possibly unrelated news, Roll Call reports that Farenthold admitted to owning the domain name Blow-Me.org but said he will not be renewing it.

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Blake Farenthold

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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