In a HuffPost Live conversation on Monday, former Congressman Barney Frank spoke out against Dennis Hastert's "hypocrisy" amid Hastert's sexual misconduct scandal, which came to light this past weekend.
Hastert, a former Republican Speaker of the House, allegedly paid more than $1.7 million to an unnamed person in an effort to cover-up accusations of sexual abuse. Hastert was charged with bank fraud for withdrawing the money in small increments so he would not be required to report the transactions to the FBI. While Hastert has stayed mum about allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a male student during his time as a high school wrestling coach and history teacher, Frank had no problem pointing out the irony of Hastert's alleged misconduct.
Frank noted that Hastert, along with Newt Gingrich and Bob Livingston, have all faced sexual misconduct allegations or allegations of infidelity, yet they all participated in Bill Clinton's impeachment proceedings for his own misconduct.
"These people get together and impeach Bill Clinton, who looks like almost a virgin in that crowd," Frank told host Alyona Minkovski.
Frank also discussed Hastert's opposition to gay marriage, calling it "the kind of hypocrisy that should be penalized," considering the allegations he is now facing. "Dennis Hastert twice as Speaker tried to get the house to pass a constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage [and], in fact, retroactively would have canceled marriages that happened in Massachusetts," he said. "So when someone who himself has engaged in same-sex activity then uses his position of great power to try to penalize other people who are doing that, that's the kind of hypocrisy that should be penalized."
Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation with former U.S. Congressman Barney Frank here.
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Before You Go
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million in hush money to keep a person from the town where he was a longtime high school teacher silent about "prior misconduct" by the Illinois Republican who once was second in line to the U.S. presidency, according to a federal grand jury indictment handed down Thursday.The indictment, which doesn't describe the alleged misconduct by Hastert, charges the 73-year-old with one count of evading bank regulations by withdrawing $952,000 in increments of less than $10,000 to skirt reporting requirements. He also is charged with one count of lying to the FBI about the reason for the unusual withdrawals.
