Remembering Larry Craig, The Anti-Gay Senator Who Tried To Blow A Cop In The Minneapolis Airport
Let me start by saying that Larry Craig is still alive. Despite being dead on the inside, he’s currently sucking up oxygen somewhere in the Midwest. The reason I’m writing this blog in the first place is because A) we spoke about him on radio yesterday and B) this month marks the twelve-year anniversary of his resignation from the Senate. Which for those of you who don’t know…is an all-timer.
On June 11th, 2007, ten days after I graduated high school, Craig was caught attempting to blow an undercover police officer at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. He was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct and ultimately pled guilty to a misdemeanor version of the charge. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Pat, the Saint Paul Airport is gorgeous, who wouldn’t want to get blown there?” To that I say, to each their own. I’m not here to judge. I am here, however, to remind people of what a hypocritical, deeply flawed man Larry Craig is and how satisfying it was to watch his demise.
And I’m not even talking about how he voted against a series of pro-LGBT bills and for the 2006 amendment to the Idaho Constitution banning gay marriage and civil unions. I’m talking about the obvious internal struggle he faced from the second he got caught until he finally resigned. Here’s how it went down:
According to the police report, the police officer sat in a bathroom stall as part of an undercover operation investigating complaints of sexual activity in the restroom. After about 13 minutes of sitting in the stall, the police officer observed Craig lingering outside and frequently peeking through the crack of the door on the stall. Craig then entered the stall to the left of the officer’s stall. The police officer made the following observations, which he recorded in his report of the incident, as to what happened next:
According to the incident report and criminal complaint filed in court, the officer showed Craig his police identification beneath the partition separating their stalls, and the officer then pointed his finger towards the restroom exit. Craig initially said no, but he ultimately complied with the officer’s request to leave the restroom.
After Craig and the officer left the restroom, Craig was reluctant to go with the officer and demanded the officer show his police identification a second time. Once the officer complied with the request, Craig, the arresting officer, and a police detective, who was stationed outside of the restroom, went to the airport police station.
As bad as peeking through the crack in the door is, it’s not even the worst part. The worst part was his flat-out denial of what took place. The man tried to bribe his was out of custody by showing the officer that he was a senator:
After the arresting officer read Craig his Miranda rights, the officer interviewed Craig about the restroom incident. At one point, Craig handed his business card to the arresting officer, which identified him as a U.S. Senator, and said to him, “What do you think about that?”
Craig told the officer that he was worried about missing his flight, and the arresting officer asked the police detective to call the airline to hold the flight. The detective reported that no one answered the telephone for the airline, and the arresting officer proceeded with the interview.
Then, when they asked him what he was doing in the bathroom, he said he has a “wide stance.” A WIDE STANCE!
According to the arrest report prepared by Sgt. Dave Karsnia, “Craig stated … He has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine.”
“Sorry officer, when I dump muh feet go wide…I can’t help it!” To put that in perspective, I’m six-foot-four and my feet don’t get close to the walls in a stall even when I am trying to blow someone. From there he straight up denies everything…
When the officer asked Craig about the use of his hands, Craig said that he reached down with his right hand to pick up a piece of paper that was on the floor. The officer disputed Craig’s version by saying, “there was not a piece of paper on the bathroom floor, nor did Craig pick up a piece of paper.”
Craig also disputed the officer’s assertion about the position of his hand, claiming that his right palm was faced down as he picked up the paper from the floor. The officer disputed Craig’s version, alleging that Craig used his left hand because his thumb, “was positioned in a faceward motion.” During the interview and in the incident report, the officer commented that Craig either disagreed with what happened in the restroom or could not recall the events as they happened.
UNTIL he entered his plea…
Craig pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct by signing and mailing a plea petition, dated August 1, 2007, to the Hennepin County District Court in Minnesota. He paid $575, including fines and fees.
Senator Craig signed the petition to enter his guilty plea, which contained the provisions, “I understand that the court will not accept a plea of guilty from anyone who claims to be innocent … I now make no claim that I am innocent of the charge to which I am entering a plea of guilty.” Craig mailed his signed petition to the court, and his petition to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge was accepted and filed by the court on August 8, 2007.
Yet somehow still denied being gay…
“Craig denied the man’s account and said, “I am not gay and I have never been in a restroom in Union Station having sex with anybody. “There’s a very clear bottom line here,” Craig said. “I don’t do that kind of thing. I am not gay, and I never have been.”
The point is, Larry Craig is, was, and always will be a piece of trash. He actively voted to hurt members of a community that he was too cowardly to be a part of. There are a ton of other accusations out there regarding Craig’s solicitation of young men for sex, but this was his most famous. So from myself, and from everyone else reading this blog…people don’t forget.
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