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Minister Rebukes Broken Arrow Senator For Lewd Comment About VP In Sermon To Chamber

Gage Skidmore
/
CC BY-SA 2.0

An Oklahoma City minister used his sermon to the chamber to condemn Sen. Nathan Dahm’s (R-Broken Arrow) crude remark about Vice President Kamala Harris.

In a news release last week announcing he was trying to ban paper straws, Dahm implied Harris has used sex to become successful in politics.

The Rev. Dr. Lee Cooper of Prospect Baptist, who was serving as chaplain this week, said in a Thursday sermon for the chamber members should have said comments like Dahm's are not to be tolerated in the Senate. A few Senators left the chamber as Cooper spoke.

"Not only should that have come from the women senators in this chamber, but everyone who heard it or heard about it should have deemed it wrong, Sen. Dahm. You don’t have to take it back. It’s still sexist. It’s still misogynistic, it is still — yeah, walk out, that’s not the first time — it is still racist," Cooper said.

Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat issued a statement calling Dahm's comment "misogynistic, disrespectful [and] immature," but leaders have not taken action against Dahm, who defends his comment about the vice president as a joke. Dahm is not a leader in the Republican Senate caucus and does not chair a committee, but he does get most of his bills heard.

Leaders have said there will be consequences for Dahm, but without him holding a leadership position, they may not be "as obvious to everyone," reported Tres Savage of NonDoc.

The Senate went into an executive session after Cooper's sermon to talk about decorum. 

Image by Gage Skidmore licensed under CC By-SA 2.0.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.
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