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A Republican member of the Wyoming state senate said he impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18. He was living in Florida at the time.
Anthony Bouchard, 55—who is running to unseat Representative Liz Cheney in the GOP House Representative election primary next year—went on Facebook Live on Thursday to get ahead of a story about his marriage to a minor 40 years ago.
Wyoming Republican state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, one of Liz Cheney's GOP primary challengers, had a relationship with and impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18.\n\n"She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story."https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/us-house-candidate-bouchard-says-he-impregnated-14-year-old-when-he-was-18/article_c3996062-e6ad-5027-96a9-1bcd0f832eda.html\u00a0\u2026— Kyle Griffin (@Kyle Griffin) 1621628402
He downplayed the relationshp as "a story when I was young, two teenagers, girl gets pregnant. You've heard those stories before."
Bouchard continued:
"She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story."
A legal adult dating a middle-school age girl is not a \u201cromeo and Juliet\u201d story. It\u2019s a crime.— 46 (@46) 1621629092
He said the girl eventually gave birth to their son after there was "a lot of pressure" for her to get an abortion.
"And there was pressure to have her banished from their family. Just pressure. Pressure to go hide somewhere. And the only thing I could see as the right thing to do was to get married and take care of him."
The video was also shared on YouTube.
Bouchard said they were able to legally marry in Florida at the time since the state allowed people of any age to marry as long as pregnancy was involved and a parent—in this case, Bouchard's mother—gave consent.
He confirmed their ages with the Casper Star-Tribune, saying the girl was 15 and he was 19 by the time they were wed. Bouchard told the paper they got a divorce three years later.
By the time she was 20, the girl—whose name was withheld—committed suicide. He added the girl's policeman father had previously taken his life and she was laid to rest next to her father.
Twitter had a different word describing Bouchard's interpretation of his relationship.
"Relationship?!?" She was a middle schooler at 14. The word is rape.— REBEL_SCUM_1970 (@REBEL_SCUM_1970) 1621628615
Not impregnated.\nRaped. Can't consent at age 14. She was forced to carry to term. Killed herself at age 20.— Art Martin (@Art Martin) 1621628532
Oh, it gets better. He raped her. Then married her, you know, to do the right thing by her and his son. Then he divorced her. Then she killed herself at 20 when their son was 5. And he is now estranged from that son. A real champion for "Family Values."— The Glass Fish (@The Glass Fish) 1621635533
People had plenty to say about his Romeo & Juliet analogy.
pic.twitter.com/eUhbbCsfZx— \ud83e\udda6Marie-Caroline\ud83e\udda5 (@\ud83e\udda6Marie-Caroline\ud83e\udda5) 1621628483
\u201cIt\u2019s like Romeo and Juliet.\u201d Yet here you are, not dead from poison.— Finding Dystopia \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Finding Dystopia \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1621629575
Yeah, that analogy is a bad choice here. We all know what happened to those two.\n\nStop abusing Shakespeare!— WeirdArchives (@WeirdArchives) 1621630104
More like a Lolita story where she gets abused.pic.twitter.com/5sW3hyNWFJ— \ud83e\udd73\u262e\ufe0f\ud83d\ude37\u2615\ufe0f#VoteBlue\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0a #WearAMask (@\ud83e\udd73\u262e\ufe0f\ud83d\ude37\u2615\ufe0f#VoteBlue\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf0a #WearAMask) 1621638021
IF that were the case- Romeo & Juliet- why is he still breathing? He was 18. She was 14. There are laws. We call that rape.— Don't Mess w/C (@Don't Mess w/C) 1621632831
On January 20, Bouchard announced he would challenge Cheney in the 2022 primary after she voted for the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump for his role in the Capitol insurrection on January 6.
Cheney—who is considered a neoconservative and a critic of Trump—has served as Representative for Wyoming's at-large congressional district since 2017 and was recently ousted as Chair of the House Republican Conference by her party for speaking out against Trump and his big lie.
Bouchard disclosed the story due to "dirty politics" after he suspected an unnamed reporter and a "political opposition research company" were driving the effort to expose him to give Cheney an advantage in winning reelection next year.
In spite of his testimonial video, Bouchard is determined not to drop out of the race.
He said:
"This is really a message about how dirty politics is. They'll stop at nothing, man, when you get in the lead, when you get in the lead and when you're somebody that can't be controlled, you're somebody who works for the people."
"They'll come after you. That's why good people don't run for office."
So does this make him the front runner now?— Surly T (@Surly T) 1621628459
He asserted he was not intimidated and political bullying towards him "doesn't work."
"Bring it on. I'm going to stay in this race. We're going to continue to raise money because my record stands on its own."
Towards the end of the video, Bouchard commented on his relationship with his son and said it was "complicated."
"Some of the things that he's got going on in his life, I certainly don't approve of them, but I'm not going to abandon him."
"I still love him. Just like when he was born."