Controversial Congressman Once Asked Why Terrorists Don’t Target The IRS and DMVs
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), who was unmasked Friday as the only congressman to use funds from the now infamous Congressional Office of Compliance to settle a sexual harassment claim, once asked in a tweet, “Why do terrorists hate airplanes? Why not drivers licenses offices or the IRS?”
Why do terrorists hate airplanes? Why not the drivers licenses office or the IRS?
— Blake Farenthold (@farenthold) December 27, 2009
It was about a year after that Dec. 27, 2009 tweet when he won a race for his first term in Congress from Texas’ 27th District, which stretches from the Gulf Coast to near Austin.
Politico reported that Farenthold paid his accuser through the little-known congressional oversight office, which has settled $15 million in various claims, including sexual harassment and racial and religious discrimination, from 1997 to 2016. The funds came from the U.S. Treasury.
The $84,000 settlement came after Farenthold’s former communications director, Lauren Greene, filed suit in federal court in 2014 saying she faced harassment from Fahrenholt and another aide and that, when she complained about it, she was fired.
Farenthold’s office did not immediately return a request for comment about the 2009 tweet.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
