An ethics complaint has been lodged against a Republican Idaho senator who yelled at students meeting with him to discuss a birth control bill. Democratic Idaho Sen. Maryanne Jordan filed the grievance against state Sen. Dan Foreman after discovering a tweet that was made from an account posing as Foreman’s, which stated that students should debate “killing babies” with a Democratic colleague.
“It’s one thing to disagree with policy, it’s another thing to position something like that against another lawmaker,” Jordan told the Associated Press, replying to the tweet on Monday. “This type of behavior is beneath the Idaho Senate.”
Typically, ethics complaints against lawmakers remain anonymous. Although Jordan verified that she filed the grievance, she didn’t reveal many details that are contained within the complaint.
After the complaint was registered, the Twitter account—which was around one year old and unverified—was briefly deleted. The account was reactivated to address the situation, stating that it wasn’t connected to Foreman. Before the account was deleted again, it sent out a handful of tweets regarding Planned Parenthood and abortion.
A dozen students trekked 300 miles to Boise, Idaho’s capitol, from University of Idaho’s Moscow campus for a scheduled meeting with Foreman to discuss a bill that would give women up to a 12-month supply of prescribed birth control, and to advocate for improving sex education at colleges. But Foreman suddenly canceled their Monday meeting.
Later on, Foreman and the students passed each other in a hallway, where several people recorded a video of him yelling, “Abortion is murder.” He added, “I’m a Roman Catholic and a conservative Republican. I think what you guys are doing stinks.”
The students weren’t actually there to talk about abortion, but were lobbying lawmakers to vote in favor of the birth control bill. According to Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho public affairs director Paul Dillon, who spoke with the AP, other meeting with state lawmakers were amicable, even if the lawmaker had differing views.
Dillon told the AP that Foreman’s actions were “completely unhinged.”
“Even if you disagree with what we have to say, there’s no excuse for that kind behavior,” Dillon continued. “He was being a bully.”
Foreman is known to have these kinds of fits. Last year, a bodycam video from the Latah County Sheriff’s Department displayed Foreman hurling profanities and shouting at an unidentified man. “Go straight to hell, you son of a bitch,” Foreman said on the footage.
Foreman also faced criticism after calling global warming “nonsense” and dubbing it a scam used by liberals to increase taxes, when a constituent expressed their concerns.
