Warren Mayor Jim Fouts, known for his foul-mouthed ways in private, went on Facebook the other day to compliment Donald Trump’s performance in Sunday’s presidential debate and to bash the media for making Trump’s lewd taped remarks a campaign issue.
Fouts did not condone Trump’s recorded comments about groping women but he offered this question: “Should everyone’s private conversation be a public issue?”
Clearly, the mayor still harbors ill will toward the media for that time in 2013 when he was caught on tape in a mafia-style tirade with one of his appointees about a persistent Fouts critic:
“If I saw him in the (expletive) street and had a baseball bat I would beat the (expletive) down to the (expletive) ground. It would take me just a little bit to find a (expletive) gun and blow his (expletive) head off. That’s how pissed off I am.”
Fouts was secretly taped by one of his City Hall subordinates and the recordings were leaked to the press.
He dropped dozens of f-bombs in those taped conversations, which could signal a personality trait he shares with Trump, who is known for using the f-word constantly in private. Perhaps the mayor sympathizes with Trump or envisions an affinity with the Republican nominee.
As for Hillary Clinton, at a time when the objectification of women has become a prime campaign issue, Fouts complained that the Democratic nominee needs to “improve her facial gestures” so she doesn’t appear arrogant.
Of course, it’s comical for a politician known for his creepy facial gestures to criticize the aura of another public official.
Here’s what Fouts had to say in his critique of Trump:
I would have been more contrite and not used “locker room talk” as an excuse. Still that was a private conversation. Issue is should everyone’s private conversation be a public issue? Behavior is one thing but what people say privately and perhaps with too much public beverages is another thing. His comments are unacceptable but they were not meant for the public.
Two things make me wonder if Fouts is conflating his 2013 experience with the crude comments in the Trump-on-the-bus incident. First, it’s fairly common knowledge that Trump has never consumed alcoholic beverages. And it would have been foolish for Trump to assume his 2005 remarks were private because he was wearing a body mic at the time and being shadowed by an “Access Hollywood” TV film crew.
