Porn pervaded politics in 2023. And none of it was sexy.
- Porn was a bipartisan issue in politics in 2023.
- Many politicians had some kind of sex-related incident that the world found out about.
There's been quite an unusual amount of porn in our politics this year, and while that may seem steamy, there was truly nothing sexy about any of it.
Let's recap:
In July, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene decided to display nude photos of Hunter Biden during a public hearing of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Two months later, Susanna Gibson, the Democratic nominee for the Virginia House of Delegates, was revealed to have live-streamed sex with her husband on Chaturbate, upending her campaign and personal life.
Come December, the public learned that GOP power couple Christian and Bridget Zeigler had a threesome after a woman involved in the liaison accused Christian Zeigler of sexual assault. The Florida Trident reported that local police conducting the investigation obtained a video of Bridget Zeigler and a woman engaging in sexual relations. It's unclear if the woman in the video is the same woman making the allegations against Christian Zeigler.
In mid-December, a video of two men having sex in an empty Senate hearing room was circulated by the Daily Caller. The video was linked to a 24-year-old staffer who worked for Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat.
Amid that scandal, Semafor reported that there was another Capitol sex tape that prompted an investigation last year into Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse's office. A spokesperson for Newhouse told the outlet that there were reports of "purported unbecoming behavior" by a senior staffer but that "no conclusive evidence" was found.
And finally, an honorable mention can be made to Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who appeared to be groped by her date during a musical performance of "Beetlejuice" before they were kicked out of the theater, surveillance footage showed.
Porn as a political weapon
Every time the American public was exposed to the pornographic material of our political leaders or servants, a strong whiff of the toxic politics we've become so familiar with followed.
What reason did Greene have to put Biden's nudes on full display? She claimed on Newsmax it was "evidence that I believe American people deserve to see" for the investigation into the younger Biden's alleged tax fraud scheme. Biden was indicted in December on charges stemming from tax evasion, but, notably, the prosecutors delivered their 56-page indictment without feeling the need to include his nudes.
Gibson, the Virginia Democrat, has said that her videos with her husband were a form of "revenge porn" she didn't know existed. She told Politico how the incident traumatized her and that her "entire life was rocked" after a Republican operative tipped off The Washington Post about the tape's existence.
The only reason the public knows about the Zieglers' threesome and the Moms for Liberty cofounder's video is because of rape allegations that were filed with the Sarasota Police Department in November, which were later published by The Florida Trident. The three-way also wouldn't have been so particularly scandalous if the couple didn't pin themselves as bastions of traditional Christian conservatism.
Experts told USA Today that the Cardin staffer incident was a reflection of how sex scandals involving LGBTQ+ people are treated more negatively and argued that the revelation of the tape was politically motivated.
Will porn in politics be the new normal?
Almost every reveal of X-rated moments in our politics has ended up with someone losing their job.
The Florida GOP is expected to vote in a special meeting next year to remove Christian Ziegler from his chair role. Gibson lost the House of Delegates race by just three points, although it's hard to say how much of that was driven by the scandal. And the Cardin staffer is no longer employed by the Senate.
"This has been a difficult time for me, as I have been attacked for who I love to pursue a political agenda," he said. "While some of my actions in the past have shown poor judgment, I love my job and would never disrespect my workplace."
Who knows what this all means for 2024 — a major election year, no less.
Are more political opponents going to start digging for sex tapes? Could porn be normalized in politics? Perhaps politicians will join others in the workforce who have begun side hustles as OnlyFans models. (Please don't.)
Maybe this is all part of some larger metaphor for how much of a turn-off US politics has become in recent years. After all, our last president has been accused by at least 26 women of sexual misconduct.
Donald Trump has been heard bragging about grabbing women by the genitals without their consent and, this year, became the first former US president to be indicted on criminal charges related to hush-money payments made to former adult star Stormy Daniels.
In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. Shortly after the verdict was handed down, Trump went to a town hall hosted by CNN and claimed that the ruling boosted his poll numbers.
Trump went on to insult Carroll and suggested she was a promiscuous woman, apologizing on behalf of the writer's ex-husband. The town hall audience laughed.
He remains the frontrunner and face of the Republican Party.