A Texas Republican city council candidate is facing felony child pornography charges after being arrested just hours before the elections.

Brad Benson, a candidate for Place #4 on the city council of Granbury, located just southwest of Fort Worth, was arrested on November 6. “I can confirm he was arrested by the District Attorney’s Office yesterday and charged with two felony child pornography charges, he should have a bond set today,” Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds told Newsweek.

The Republican Party of Hood County (RPHC) withdrew its support for Benson after more details about the charges emerged.

  • mibo80@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Always a Republican/Conservative. I wonder what the odds are this guy still wins.

  • gwildors_gill_slits@lemmy.ca
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    The Republican Party of Hood County (RPHC) withdrew its support for Benson after more details about the charges emerged.

    Honestly, this is the most shocking part

    • phar@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      You know they had to think about it for a while, they didn’t just make that call immediately

      • jasondj@ttrpg.network
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        1 year ago

        That’s what they said. “After more details emerged”.

        As in the initial story came out, RPHC just said “now hold on there, this may not be that bad. Let’s just see how it plays out”.

    • Bobble9211@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Article basically says they talked to the sheriff in private who told them “he asked for and received the porn on purpose”. Don’t know how a PR person is supposed to spin that.

    • Raxiel@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well, he can’t very well continue standing in election for local government when he’s on the cusp of being invited to Mar a Lago to run for VP

  • eran_morad@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Repub plot lines getting repetitive AF. Where’s that guy that posts that long-ass list of republican perverts?

  • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    His website: https://www.bradbenson.org/about

    I’m sure the right will basically blame this on him being a gay man.

    I am not your ordinary political candidate, however. Besides being a long time Granbury resident and business owner, I’m a genuine conservative, both fiscally and ideologically. That said, I am also a gay man with a partner of nearly 10 years. He’s as conservative as I am—both of us believing that private lives should remain private. I strongly believe that sexuality is a topic that should be handled within your own family, not in public schools or flaunted in parades.

    I’m a graduate of Tarleton State University; My Bachelors degree is in Management with a Masters of Public Administration currently in process at Tarleton. I never expected to “need” a college degree in life, but as I’ve aged, I have found it does open doors. Going back to college to work on my masters has been eye opening and challenging, but it’s a personal goal that I intend to complete.

    I regularly attend Stonewater Church in Granbury and participate in small groups. A leap of faith by both the Bensons and the Whites back in about 2004 made our movie theater Stonewater’s first real home, supercharged the church’s growth, and both still have a strong “synergy” with each other today!

    Away from the fire department, church, and work, my interests and hobbies include the lake (recently having tried wake surfing), hunting, fishing, spending time with my Labrador Brody, and movies (of course!) I am a commercial pilot and flight instructor and spent many past summers flying small planes around Alaska. I have many wild tales and a few close calls from those adventurous times–flying hunters, miners, and tourists around the Last Frontier and the highest mountain on the continent: Denali.

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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      I am a gay man

      sexuality shouldn’t be flaunted in parades

      just on websites?

      come on man, if a “parade” is flaunting, so is a fucking website. have some fucking consistency in your ass backwards shit for brains beliefs

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        First of all, fuck that guy.

        But a parade is pretty much the definition of flaunting. It’s intentionally in your face and hard to ignore, unlike a web site. It’s entirely justified flaunting IMHO, and also not what homophobes are generally referring to when they accuse LGBT+ people of flaunting their sexuality, but I don’t see what’s gained by saying it’s not flaunting.

        • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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          I’d argue that writing something unencrypted and ungated on a website for the purpose of someone else to read meets a certain definition of “flaunt.”

          It’s a different kind, but also - unless you carry a sign with your name on it, being in a parade is anonymous, this was “flaunted” on a site directly related to this person and their political career, so the expectation is for it to be publicly available and to be read by others by the author - again, a different but valid definition of “flaunt.”

      • QHC@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m sure he is equally disgusted by the displays of heterosexuality in most parades, or maybe he is blind to that because that’s “normal”.

    • Nougat@kbin.social
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      I strongly believe that sexuality is a topic that should be handled within your own family, not in public schools or flaunted in parades.

      Really? Really??

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      Sure. When it’s just another hetero Republican guy with a beard who commits a crime, they completely ignore it. If they can score points because someone who commits a crime is gay, liberal or trans, they’ll act as if those are the only people who ever commit whatever crime.

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    1 year ago

    “Republican charged with” always is followed one or more of the following

    • election fraud
    • Fraud
    • Child pornography
    • child rape, preferably their own
    • child abuse in general
    • sexual misconduct
    • drug abuse

    I should start a bingo card

  • squiblet@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    arrested just hours before the elections

    ?? But Trumpie said you CAN’T get prosecuted for anything when you’re running for office! Election Interference!!

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    1 year ago

    I dont know anything about this individual or his political persuasions, nor do I have any information on his current legal situation, but regardless it is insane to me that we can just publish something like this. What if this person is innocent? The entire world has now seen their face and the words “child pornography” together and that is 1000% a life ruiner. Our culture regarding the legal system is fucked the fuck up man

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      People on the internet seem to.entirely forget the whole presumption of innocence until proven guilty. This should even apply to Republicans.

      • gh0stcassette@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        Presumption of innocence is a legal rule, not a good epistemic rule. If it turns out that he’s found innocent, then cool, good for him. However, I’m going to keep assuming that Republican politicians charged with/accused of sexual misconduct are guilty until proven otherwise because the rate of sexual misconduct among Republican politicians seems to be Insanely High, plus their ideology and policies help justify it.

        Although I don’t think arrests should be public record, cops can arrest people for anything regardless of evidence and particularly for something as serious as CSAM possession it should at least have to go to trial to be made public

    • norbert@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Wonder who owns a pizza parlor with a basement, we should probably check them out just to be safe.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Even as dumb as many of the base are, I still think it is very telling that the right has made being, ahem, against fascism a bad thing.