MAGA Lawmaker Censured for Calling Fatal Child Abuse a ‘Benefit to Society’
It’s hard to imagine a Republican politician saying something so abhorrent that the party would actually discipline them for it. The GOP has tolerated if not condoned white nationalism, calling for violence against political opponents, an attempt to overthrow the democratic process, and fabricating an entire backstory to con voters in a swing district.
The party, at least in Alaska, seems to have drawn a line at touting the benefits of children dying from rampant abuse, with the state House voting 35-1 on Wednesday to censure Rep. David Eastman for doing just that during a committee hearing on Monday. Eastman cast the lone dissenting vote.
More from Rolling Stone
Shakira and Karol G Combine Their Star Power on Blockbuster 'TQG'
The Weeknd Takes 'Die For You' to New Heights on Ariana Grande-Assisted Remix
“In the case where child abuse is fatal, obviously it’s not good for the child, but it’s actually a benefit to society because there aren’t needs for government services and whatnot over the whole course of the child’s life,” Eastman said during the hearing on Monday.
Eastman was asked to clarify. “Talking dollars,” he said, adding that “it gets argued periodically that it’s actually a cost savings because that child is not going to need any of those government services that they might otherwise be entitled to receive.”
Not even sure what to say here. Rep. Eastman says it’s a benefit to society when children who are victims of abuse die “because there aren’t needs for government services over the course of that child’s life” when they die as a results of abuse. #akleg pic.twitter.com/0hV4o7AzTY
— The Alaska Landmine (@alaskalandmine) February 21, 2023
Eastman is a die-hard Trump supporter with ties to the Oath Keepers. He recently fought off an effort to boot him from the state legislature for violating the “disloyalty clause” in Alaska’s constitution by rallying for Trump in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, although he says he never entered the Capitol.
Eastman has been censured before, too. The Alaska state House, then controlled by Democrats, voted in 2017 to rebuke Eastman for telling multiple news outlets that some women get pregnant on purpose so they can travel to a big city. “We have folks who try to get pregnant in this state so that they can get a free trip to the city, and we have folks who want to carry their baby past the point of being able to have an abortion in this state so that they can have a free trip to Seattle,” he told the Associated Press.
“You have individuals who are in villages and are glad to be pregnant, so that they can have an abortion because there’s a free trip to Anchorage involved,” he later told Alaska Public Media.
Eastman has lashed out at Democrats this week for criticizing his position that children dying from abuse is a good thing, arguing that he could never “support child abuse when I’ve staked my entire political career arguing for the opposite,” according to the AP.
Eastman described abortion as the “ultimate form of child abuse” in a 2017 resolution.
Best of Rolling Stone
