NEW: Skarlatos Writes Off Jokes About Sexual Violence as “Politically Incorrect”

Things keep getting worse for Alek Skarlatos (OR-04). First, it was revealed that he joked about choking and killing women during sex just before his first failed run for office. Then, another report found that he repeatedly interacted with images of “scantily clad” underage girls on social media. And just yesterday, KLCC published a story about Skarlatos’ recent comments about these incidents at a Springfield church, where he continued to make light of his disturbing behavior.

KLCC’s Chris Lehman writes that Skarlatos “started talking about his sex life” – and specifically how he used to choke his ex-girlfriend during sex – “in front of a congregation of Sunday church-goers.”

Despite Skarlatos’ comments occuring only 5 years ago, he wrote off the incident as a “product of his age and immaturity,” and simply chalked up his jokes about sexual violence as “politically incorrect things.”

DCCC Spokesperson Teddy Lake:
“Alek Skarlatos clearly has no capacity to understand that his comments weren’t just ‘politically incorrect,’ but downright dangerous – and that makes him wholly unfit to hold public office.”

Read more below:

KLCC: Skarlatos continues to face questions about his 2018 podcast comments
By Chris M. Lehman | October 19, 2022

• Republican congressional candidate Alek Skarlatos continues to face questions on the campaign trail about comments he made about sexual violence during a 2018 podcast.

• Skarlatos is the Republican nominee in Oregon’s Fourth Congressional District, but he’s best known for his role in helping to stop a terrorist attack on a European train in 2015 while in the Army National Guard. That incident was turned into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood, in which Skarlatos played himself.

• As part of the movie’s publicity tour, Skarlatos and a co-star appeared on a podcast called Drinkin’ Bros. The conversation was frequently raunchy with discussions of sex, as well as the physical attributes of women in Skarlatos’ hometown of Roseburg.

• “You ever thought, if you choked someone and killed them in bed, what would happen?” the host said.

• “Oh yeah,” responded Skarlatos, laughing.

• The entire podcast is posted online, but its existence was first reported by the Oregon Capital Chronicle in September. The exchange was quickly turned into an attack ad by Skarlatos’ Democratic opponent, Val Hoyle.

• Skarlatos quickly apologized, and started running his own ad to explain the comments.

• But the incident still comes up, even at events that might be considered friendly turf for the conservative candidate.

• When he spoke at a Springfield, Oregon, church this month, one of the first questions from the audience was about the 2018 podcast, with the questioner calling it “the big elephant in the room.”

• “Why were you really laughing about the choking of women during sex?” said the woman who posed the question.

• And so, in front of a congregation of Sunday church-goers, Skarlatos started talking about his sex life.

• “Basically, I don’t want to get too deep into it, but I had an ex-girlfriend who liked to be choked during sex,” he said.

• “I resent that I even have to talk to you about this in a church,” he continued, interspersing his comments with nervous laughter.

• Skarlatos went on to call the incident a product of his age and immaturity.

• “[You say] a lot of crass and politically incorrect things while you’re in the military, and I still hadn’t grown out of that at the time, and so the guy that was running the podcast made a joke about it, and I basically laughed and agreed with him, and I apologize,” he said. “And I understand that that’s not a good look.”

• But while Skarlatos said his comments were made as a young man just out of the Army, they came just months before he launched his political career with a bid for the Douglas County Commission. He lost, and less than a year after that, he announced his first run for Congress, an unsuccessful attempt to unseat then-incumbent Peter DeFazio.

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