Jacob Ogles
Moms for Liberty is condemning Republican Party of Florida Chair Christian Ziegler — the husband of one of the group’s co-founders, Bridget Ziegler — after Christian Ziegler was accused of rape.
“We have been truly shaken to read of the serious, criminal allegations against Christian Ziegler,” said Moms for Liberty co-founders Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice. “We believe any allegation of sexual assault should be taken seriously and fully investigated.”
The ongoing criminal investigation also resulted in surprising details about the private lives of Bridget and Christian Ziegler. A search warrant for contents of Christian Ziegler’s phone shows the couple separately admitted to a past three-way sexual encounter with a woman now accusing Christian Ziegler of raping her in a Sarasota apartment.
An attorney for Christian Ziegler said the investigation will exonerate him. Bridget Ziegler faces no accusation of criminal activity. But the matter has resulted in calls for both Zieglers to resign all public and partisan positions.
The statement from Moms for Liberty stressed that Bridget Ziegler, now a Sarasota County School Board member, hasn’t been deeply engaged in the organization since shortly after its founding.
“Bridget Ziegler resigned from her role as co-founder with Moms for Liberty within a month of our launch in January of 2021, nearly three years ago,” Descovich and Justice said. “She has remained an avid warrior for parental rights across the country.”
The relationship has called the future of Moms for Liberty into question. In Pennsylvania, the Northumberland County chapter of Moms for Liberty announced the organization would pause activity and members would form a different group with no connection to the Florida-based organization, according to The News-Item.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried heavily criticized Moms for Liberty in a press call. She said revelations about Bridget Ziegler were only the latest scandal, and referenced an Indiana chapter that included an Adolf Hitler quote in a newsletter, as well as associations with extremist group The Proud Boys.
“I do not believe that we will see Moms for Liberty in the future,” Fried said. “Because the foundation was so weak to begin with, the whole entire organization is going to start to crumble.”
But Descovich and Justice sounded defiant amid scrutiny of the organization.
“To our opponents who have spewed hateful vitriol over the last several days: We reject your attacks,” they said. “We will continue to empower ALL parents to build relationships that ensure the survival of our nation and a thriving education system. We are laser-focused on fundamental parental rights, and that mission is and always will be bigger than any one person.”
14 comments
rick whitaker
December 5, 2023 at 2:26 pm
christian fanatics’ rarely ever back down. hate and deception is a tool they use to get the money and power they crave.
Yep
December 6, 2023 at 3:23 pm
Says the communist.
rick whitaker
December 6, 2023 at 4:09 pm
yep, so you call me a communist without knowing me, that’s very maga cultist of you.so using the same logic of your statement about someone you don’t know, i will call you a white christian nationalist. no i won’t, i’m not a maga cultist so i see that as unfair. i will preface my statement by saying, ” based on your comment”, i think so in so. i didn’t read any statement prefacing in your post. BTW, i am not a communist, so you were wrong.
Michael K
December 5, 2023 at 2:27 pm
Many Floridians have been shaken since the so called “moms for liberty” launched their hateful attacks and radicalized cal right wing agenda on LGBTQ people and our schools under the lie of “parental rights.” These self appointed moral crusaders are a grass tops Republican hate group and their hypocrisy is no surprise. They are a sham along with the governor who empowered them.
JD
December 5, 2023 at 2:27 pm
Distancing themselves because they know they got in with some strange bedfellow (pun intended).
F@cking hypocrites. Stop doubling down and admit you all are full of sh!t. Quit deflecting and projecting. Clean up that freak show of a big tent.
Tom
December 5, 2023 at 2:34 pm
Milf’s for Liberty – I love the hyprocracy. You can’t make this stuff up.
rick whitaker
December 5, 2023 at 6:53 pm
tom, now that was funny
Michael Vendor
December 5, 2023 at 2:56 pm
Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice don’t have clean hands in all of this. The organization needs to be dismantled down to the ground. These perverts do NOT speak for ANY parents
Sonja Fitch
December 5, 2023 at 3:08 pm
Moms for Liberty is just a very disgusting group of haters! So what is not surprising is the accusations of the husband raping someone! These folks are totally out of touch with reality! Lol
Johann Olivier
December 7, 2023 at 2:04 pm
It seems to be the ‘new GOP’ way: da as we say, not as we allow ourselves to do. Freedom is what we say it is. HOW many of these cases do we need to see before so many voters understand the savage hypocrisy of the ‘new GOP’?
rick whitaker
December 7, 2023 at 3:20 pm
johann, hypocrites see other hypocrites as brethren or comrades. the gop will not clean itself up, they see no reason to.
Callie Ryder
December 13, 2023 at 2:00 pm
Why is everything so mean-spirited now? How can anyone be inspired by or about anything?
rick whitaker
December 13, 2023 at 2:20 pm
callie, why do you call pointing out obvious hypocrisy, mean-spirited ? mom’s for liberty, now that’s mean- spirited. why do you think the group is despised by everyone but white christian nationalist? what you call being ” inspired “, is what i call christian meddling in non-christian peoples lives. your statement smacks of maga cultist lunacy.
Callie Ryder
December 13, 2023 at 2:02 pm
I find myself wanting to be mean-spirited too and I know it’s from all the hate we are all exposed to from groups like Moms for Liberty.
The name Moms for Liberty has always struck me as a group of entitled women with not enough to do and who give moms – and women in general – a bad name. A group should be started called Parents for Common Sense. Their mission would be to support public school teachers by banding together to inform all political parties that Parents with Common Sense want politicians to stop exploiting children and public education for political gain.
I can’t speak for everywhere, but in the county where I live, there is – and always has been – a process where parents can request a book or books to be looked at to remove from the school. or district…and most teachers I know want the parents of their students to talk to them if they have concerns about anything that is happening at their school.
The reason there is a serious teacher shortage isn’t because of low pay, it’s because of being treated horribly. Yes, teachers should be paid more but they didn’t go into the profession for the money…they went into it because they wanted to make a difference in the world and into the lives of our next generation. Now teachers live in fear that they will be used by groups like Moms for Liberty for political gain and their lives can be destroyed and names dragged through the mud. People don’t think about that but in the wake of accusations of grooming or woke teaching (whatever the he11 that even is) or any of the other manufactured crud that has gone on is the ruined lives of individuals who just wanted to make a difference.
What ALL political parties have done makes me sick to my stomach. It is our system of public education that has made this country strong. Our public education system is truly American because all children in this country have a right to a free public education…but what all students and teachers need now is a public education system that is free from the tyranny of political parties.
So there!
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