We are now confronting yet another symbol of how our politics has rotted to the core in the ten years since Donald Trump came down the escalator. As Obama said, Trump is not the problem, he’s the symbol of the problem. How fascinating that our politics should do a flip flop of such epic proportions between the Obama years and the first Trump administration. Black and white, night and day, none of those stark binary comparisons come anywhere near to describing what we have collectively lived through.
The Obama era was not only hopeful, it was clean as opposed to dirty. What we live in now, is a filthy political cesspool. And yes, Obama was right. The darkness didn’t just appear with Trump. He merely exposed what was there and had been there for some time. He exposed it because he was in tune with it. Trump is the swamp and the swamp is Trump. And now in Florida, a literal and figurative swamp, arises another swamp creature, Cory Mills. The issue before the GOP is whether to cut Mills loose or keep him around and hope it all blows over. After all, “grab ’em by the pussy” miraculously blew over. The Capitol riot blew over. But now Trump’s got the Epstein problem which doesn’t seem to be blowing over. And so what does the GOP do about this congressman?
While Republican leaders appear poised to give Mills space, plenty of others see a potential political mess in the making — starting with House Democrats, whose campaign arm recently put his seat on their list of “Districts in Play” for the midterms despite the bearish 2024 results. At least three Democrats have already announced they plan to challenge him.
“Floridians deserve leaders who protect people, not threaten them,” said Noah Widmann, one of the three. “Cory Mills is unfit to serve.”
Among House Republicans, quiet concerns have been brewing for months about whether Mills’ behavior could give Democrats a real opening. Some of his GOP colleagues are wondering if they should start looking for another candidate to back in the district, according to three Republicans granted anonymity to describe private talks.
“What if he is arrested for real?” said one of the three, a member.
Another House Republican, also granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said other controversies — including an allegation of unpaid rent that Mills dismissed last month as a misunderstanding with building management — have also surprised lawmakers.
A recent NOTUS report questioned whether Mills has been honest about his military service for which he was awarded a Bronze Star; Mills acknowledged “different recollections during chaotic wartime events” but said he was entitled to the honor. And as House Ethics probes his businesses’ contracts, which concern the sales of weapons or other equipment, Mills continues to sit on the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees.
“And then this whole other issue is disturbing,” the lawmaker said about the new accusations of personal threats.
Those are rooted in Mills’ relationship with Lindsey Langston, the 2024 Miss United States. She told authorities last month that Mills contacted her multiple times threatening to release nude images and videos of them having sex and harm her future romantic partners after she broke off the relationship earlier this year, according to a police report obtained this week by POLITICO. The report said Langston shared messages with Mills backing up her claims.
In any sane and moral society, there would be no debate on this issue. Mills would be gone. My God, look at what happened to Al Franken and for what? For a photograph 10 years before, done on a movie set? And that sent the Minnesota senator packing? What Mills is being accused of is many times more egregious morally not to mention illegal. Franken did nothing illegal. His *error* was perhaps a lapse of judgement but in his case, the punishment did not fit the crime. He was a sacrificial lamb sent to the slaughter.
Mills is, however, dirty as hell if even half of what’s being said about him is true. And again, we see the same power play where women are concerned. His girlfriend reported his assault to the police and then later withdrew the charge. His other girlfriend, Langston, was told by Mills that she could basically kiss her political career goodbye if she opposed him. The good ole boys would side with him.
Mills deserves to go. But will he go? It’s a coin toss. It’s a coin toss because we live in a country where the politics have gotten so crazy and so corrupt that we have a convicted felon sitting in the Oval Office. This will be recorded as the bottom of the democratic experiment in America. And that’s assuming that we live through this and get to the other side. If we don’t, then it will be recorded as the time when Big Brother came off the pages of 1984 and became our way of life.
