A Nebraska state senator has stepped down after retweeting a message that implied that participants in the Women’s March on Washington were too unattractive to be sexually assaulted.
Republican Sen. Bill Kintner held a press conference at the state Capitol to announced his resignation on Wednesday. According to the Associated Press, his announcement came less than a hour before his fellow lawmakers were scheduled to debate whether he should be expelled from the body.
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On Sunday, Kintner retweeted a post from conservative radio host Larry Elder that showed a photo of female protesters holding signs that referenced Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood tape boasts about sexually assaulting women. Above the image, Elder wrote, “Ladies, I think you’re safe.” (The original tweet has since been deleted.)
The retweet provoked immediate outrage online and the AP reports that Kintner’s office eventually released a statement saying, “By retweeting a message, I was not implying support for putting women in fear of their personal safety. I took down the retweet as soon as I became aware that it was being misconstrued.”
This isn’t the first time Kintner’s been the subject of controversy. Last year, he was fined for using a state computer to trade sexually-explicit messages and videos with a female stranger. Kintner reported the incident to police after the woman threatened to go public unless he paid her $4,500. While many—including Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts—called for his resignation over the scandal, Kintner refused to step down at the time.
