Paul Ryan says Farenthold made "right decision" to retire after sexual harassment allegations
Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that Texas GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold has made the "right decision" to not seek re-election and retire from Congress next year, amid new stories about the Texas Republican's history of bullying and sexual harassment.
"I had a couple conversations with Blake Farenthold yesterday. I think he's making the right decision to retire. There are new stories that are very disconcerting. Unacceptable behavior has been alleged in those stories. I think he's made the right decision that he's going to be leaving Congress," Ryan said at his weekly press conference.
Asked whether lawmakers should be able to continue sleeping in their Capitol Hill offices, Ryan said, "We sleep in our offices because we work until about midnight and we get up early, early in the morning." Ryan called it a "convenience factor" and dismissed the idea that lawmakers see their staffers in their offices at night.
Ryan's comments come after CNN reported Thursday that a former communications director to Farenthold came forward recently to the House Ethics Committee, saying that his former boss made sexually demeaning and abusive comments to him and other staff members.
The former staffer told CNN that the congressman regularly described aides with an expletive and would break into screaming fits of rage, slamming his fists on desks.
Rekola also told CNN that in July 2015, just before he was about to get married, Farenthold made lewd comments about his fiancee and joked about whether she could wear white on her wedding day, a reference, the former staffer took to be about premarital sex.
After leaving House votes on Thursday, when asked if he will resign from Congress, Farenthold told reporters, "Check my Facebook page." In a video message posted on his campaign Facebook page, he announced he would not run for re-election. He also said he allowed a permissive and unprofessional work environment "to take root" in his office. He apologized for that. But he continued to deny the sexual harassment allegations against him.
Asked if he denies the allegations made against him, he said, "There have been so many I don't know what all is doing on."
As for floor votes on the tax bill, Ryan said that the House is remaining "flexible" because of the absences of Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Mississippi and Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who remains hospitalized at Walter Reed Medical Center for "normal side effects" of his treatment from brain cancer, his office said Wednesday. Cochran had an outpatient procedure done Monday to address a non-melanoma lesion on his nose, a spokesman told CBS, who added that the senator is in DC and expects to vote for the tax plan in the Senate next week.
CBS News' Kathryn Watson and Catherine Reynolds contributed to this report.