Republican Senator Bill Kintner, an outspoken Nebraska state legislator who was fined for having cybersex using a state computer resigned on Wednesday after causing further outrage by sending a tweet that implied participants at the Women’s March against Trump were too unattractive to be victims of sexual assault.
Kintner made the announcement at a news conference in the state Capitol that he would step down from the seat he has held since 2012 less than an hour before Nebraska lawmakers were scheduled to debate whether to expel him — the first time the state Legislature would have taken such an action in recent history.
In his speech, Kintner said he didn’t want to leave his position because “it will be hailed as a victory to the progressive and aggressive liberal movement.”
Kintner retweeted a comment Sunday by conservative radio personality Larry Elder that mocked three women pictured with signs protesting Donald Trump’s comments about touching women inappropriately.
But even before Kintner’s Twitter blunder, he was already under scrutiny for his behavior, Daily Mail reports. The blunt-spoken lawmaker paid a $1,000 fine last year for misuse of state property, after he admitted to engaging in mutual masturbation in July 2015 with a woman using Skype, an online video-chatting service.
Kintner turned himself to the Nebraska State Patrol after the woman threatened to expose the encounter unless he paid her $4,500.
That scandal drew calls for him to resign from top state officials, but Kintner refused to bow to the pressure. He even faced threats of impeachment from fellow senators.
Kintner’s history of offensive statements has made even some of his conservative allies cringe. In 2015, the Nebraska Latino American Commission condemned Kintner for repeatedly using the ethnic slur, “wetback” during a debate over allowing driver’s licenses for certain youths brought to the country illegally.
