Just to be clear, this is not a Night Owl.
Leslie Cockburn, the Democrat running in the Fifth district of Virginia, publicly attacked her opponent for two things on Sunday night: campaigning with a white supremacist and writing bigfoot porn.
My opponent Denver Riggleman, running mate of Corey Stewart, was caught on camera campaigning with a white supremacist. Now he has been exposed as a devotee of Bigfoot erotica. This is not what we need on Capitol Hill. pic.twitter.com/0eBvxFd6sG
— Leslie Cockburn (@LeslieCockburn) July 29, 2018
The most salacious of the two charges is obviously the bigfoot “erotica”. The more concerning of the two is the white supremacist. The white supremacist is the one which will be addressed first.
The person in question is named Isaac Smith, and he co-founded the group Unity and Security for America. He is described by his opponents as an “avowed white supremacist”. This is inaccurate. He is an avowed racist and an elitist, but not an avowed white supremacist. He has repeatedly made clear his desire to limit immigration only to what he considers to be fully Westernized nations… including places like Japan. He is not pro-white, he is anti-black and generally anti-arabic and anti-hispanic. The group Unity and Security for America regularly attends rallies alongside groups that promote white supremacist beliefs.
So, while he is not necessarily a white supremacist, Isaac Smith supports them and is an avowed racist and elitist who promotes discord under the banner of nationalism. That is a fairly damning compatriot for campaign events. That said, it is virtually impossible for a local politician to screen campaign events for all potentially offensive attendees. Until there is evidence that Riggleman knows of Smith’s positions or has called on him to work alongside his campaign, it seems to be an overhyped charge based on a few photos. The real questions should be why Smith feels inspired to attend Riggleman’s functions, and whether there is any proof he was invited to do so.
None of that is what’s gathering international attention, however. The attention is focused on bigfoot porn.
There are references to it on Riggleman’s social media accounts, but Riggleman claims it is just a joke perpetrated by his friends from the military. If “bigfoot porn” was not a fetish of some people, the very idea would be ludicrous… but it is. For the sake of basic decency, no verifying link has been provided, but any search engine can find it.
The greatest indicator that Riggleman is telling the truth about it being a joke comes from the caption on one of the postings. He refers to his book, due to be released in one or two months, “Mating Habits of Bigfoot and Why Women Want Him”. Amazon, the primary source of e-book and small press purchasing, has no indication that any such book has been produced or is in pre-order. (Amazon) For the curious, Mating Habits of Werewolves is an actual title, from N.J. Lysk.
Ultimately, this looks to be a basic political attack, but one whose oddity (even the candidates’ names fueled that aspect of the story, with Cockburn vs. Denver Riggleman) has garnered attention both national and international.
Still not a Night Owl, though.
For the record: the comments that were avoided during the article include references to “jerky”, “Cockburn triggers investigation into recent intimate associates”, “Bigfoot, somewhere deep in Denver”, and Dennis Hof’s new line of clients.