Stripped of Respect: Dem Rep Under Fire After Spending Campaign Finances on Strip Club
It’s always rather ironic how today’s progressive left professes to be committed to progress, and yet their celebrated leaders often behave like bad stereotypes of corrupt, establishment politicians.
There are the members of the “squad” and the sundry allegations of campaign finance missteps, an extramarital affair and lavish personal spending.
There’s the old guy in the White House who has been accused of sexual assault and has a drug-addicted son accused of not only enriching himself with the family name but also of selling access to his father.
There are the far-reaching, tyrannical COVID-19 restrictions they happily impose on their own citizens, yet so consistently fail to adhere to themselves.
Most disgusting, of course, is Democratic rhetoric slamming “the patriarchy” when their policies — and often their private behavior — demonstrate complete and utter disregard for female dignity.
A quintessential case of this complete hypocrisy is Michigan state Rep. Jewell Jones, who has now been busted for spending campaign money at a topless gentlemen’s club, which he is defending as simply meeting his constituents “where they’re at.”
The Detroit News reported that Jones, who made state history as the youngest representative elected to the Michigan legislature, spent $221 of his campaign money at the Pantheion Club in Dearborn on March 8.
The reason? Apparently, he was having a “constituent meeting” to discuss “potential economic projects,” according to a disclosure Jones filed on Sunday.
If that isn’t the most politician-ey excuse for spending campaign money at an establishment whose sole purpose is to provide men with a medium to ogle over half-naked women, I don’t know what is.
Also: Rep. Jones spent more than $200 from his campaign account at a strip club, calling it an office expense.
The reason? “constituent meeting to discuss potential economic projects in Inkster” https://t.co/6FoVcKtPdE pic.twitter.com/eGEjBeEa91
— Simon D. Schuster (@Simon_Schuster) July 26, 2021
Full filing is here: https://t.co/J19LrM2r4k
— Simon D. Schuster (@Simon_Schuster) July 26, 2021
A Twitter account identifying itself as the Pantheion Club describes itself as “the oldest and most established gentlemens club in michigan” (yes, that’s how it’s actually written) and the “#1 in topless entertainment!”
In a text message to The Detroit News, Jones took a fresher approach to excusing his strip club spending, claiming the venue has “great lamb chops,” and saying: “We have [to] meet people where they’re at some times … #HOLLA.”
This sounds more like a pastor than a politician, but Jones is no pastor.
According to the disclosure of funds spent between Jan. 1 and July 20, Jones also used campaign money to the tune of over $6,400 at restaurants and lounges for “meetings,” including nearly $700 at a Las Vegas restaurant for a “dinner meeting with other legislators.”
If Jones’ name sounds familiar, it may not just be due to his historic election in 2016. He’s been in the headlines far more recently.
Yes, Jones was arrested in April after he was pulled over for allegedly driving erratically and rolling his vehicle, which sported the vanity plate “ELECTED,” into a ditch. Police needed pepper spray to subdue the incredibly intoxicated Jones — his blood-alcohol content was later tested at 0.19, according to WDIV-TV — only to be berated by him about how “I run y’alls’ budget,” authorities said.
When police found Jones, they say he had his pants down and was holding up a woman who was later found to be severely intoxicated and unresponsive, according to WJBK-TV.
Jones allegedly resisted arrest, threatening to call “Big Gretch” — i.e. Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who he described as “the homie,” according to the New York Post.
“If you hit me, it’s going to be very bad for you. I’ll call Gov. Whitmer right now,” he reportedly told officers as they struggled to cuff him, the Detroit Free Press reported at the time.
He also reportedly said he would need their “IDs, badge numbers, everything” for “when I call Gretchen.”
What would “the homie,” Gretchen Whitmer, whom Ms. magazine named as one of the notable feminists of the year for 2020, think about her fellow Democrat spending campaign money at a strip club and dropping her name while allegedly resisting arrest for driving drunk?
Jones, by the way, also drew criticism in June for appearing to celebrate accused date rapist Bill Cosby’s release from prison on Instagram. While Americans may be split on whether Cosby’s release from prison was justifiable, this certainly does not vibe with the Democrats’ “believe all women” trope, does it?
The party that professes to be for women — that has championed the #MeToo movement, that claims their Republican counterparts want to turn the U.S. into a real-life version of “The Handmaid’s Tale” — often seems to display considerably less regard for women than they do for seeking votes, doesn’t it?
What’s more, what would the entire Democratic establishment say if this was a promising young Republican politician, running around, dropping money at “gentleman’s clubs” and being caught, literally, with their pants down? We can only imagine.
Fresh new faces, same old political corruption and hypocrisy. No, the Democratic Party is most certainly not progressing.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
