House Candidate Apologizes for ‘Politically Incorrect’ Jokes About Choking Women

Oregon congressional candidate Alek Skarlatos is apologizing for making comments about choking women, which he characterized over the weekend as “politically incorrect.” At a candidate forum at a church, he said that he “resent[s]” having to even discuss the matter.

In September, Jezebel reported on Skarlatos’s 2018 podcast appearance in which one of the hosts asked if Skarlatos thought about “if you choked someone and killed them in bed what would happen.” Skarlatos laughed, saying, “Oh yeah. Oh yeah.” In the same conversation, Skarlatos brought up the 2017 trial of a man who successfully argued that he didn’t kill his girlfriend, she just died while performing oral sex. The man “got off, in more ways than one,” said Skarlatos, who was on the podcast to promote a Clint Eastwood movie based on Skarlasos’ own experience thwarting a gun attack on a train.

Someone attending the Sunday forum asked him: “Why were you really laughing about the choking of women during sex?” A reasonable question to ask a man who wants to represent the state of Oregon in Congress!

He responded by obfuscating like a pro.

“I’m sure you’ve all seen the attack ad against me about a quote that I said five years ago when I left the Army, which was unfortunate. Basically, I don’t want to get too deep it, but I had an ex-girlfriend who liked to be choked during sex and I resent that I even have to talk to you about this in a church,” Skarlatos said while (again) laughing.

“Unfortunately, you say a lot of crass, politically incorrect things while you’re in the military and I still hadn’t grown out of that at the time,” he continued. “The guy that was running the podcast made a joke about it, and I basically laughed and agreed with him, which was unfortunate and I apologize. I understand that’s not a good look.”

The real tragedy from Skarlatos’ perspective, though, is that his icky comments got out. “Of course, my opponent Val Hoyle has absolutely run with that clip and put about $700,000 behind it on TV,” Skarlatos said. “So I apologize.”

The ad, sponsored by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (not Hoyle), paints Skarlatos as a “creepy guy online” and includes the choking-to-death comments.

Skarlatos has not yet addressed his previous history of liking revealing photos of underage girls on social media, or the creepy comments he made about his partner when he appeared on Dancing With the Stars. Those were also “not a good look” for an aspiring member of Congress.