Democrats blast Kirk for 'bro with no ho' remark
Sen. Mark Kirk raises brows with description of fellow senator's marital status
Sen. Mark Kirk was caught on a live microphone Thursday saying Republican presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham, who is unmarried, is a "bro with no ho."
Kirk, a North Shore Republican, made the observation while votes were being taken during a Senate Appropriations Committee markup.
"I've been joking with Lindsey," the Illinois lawmaker said, referring to news accounts that Sen. Graham, if elected, might have a rotating first lady.
"He's a bro with no ho," Kirk said, apparently talking to a colleague. "That's what we'd say on the South Side."
Kirk’s press secretary, Danielle Varallo, said in a statement that “Senator Kirk was joking with his colleague and immediately apologized to anyone offended by his remark.”
Politico reported Kirk was asked by a reporter if he regretted the remark and he said: “I do.”
Later Thursday, Sen. Graham said in a statement: “Sen. Kirk said he regrets the comments. I believe that is the appropriate response.”
Kirk, elected to the Senate in 2010, suffered a massive stroke in 2012 and underwent almost a year of rehabilitation. He is up for re-election in 2016. Two Democratic women, Rep. Tammy Duckworth and former Chicago Urban League CEO Andrea Zopp, have declared they are seeking Kirk's seat.
Graham is a Republican senator from South Carolina.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee immediately circulated an audio recording of Kirk's remarks.
Both Democratic candidates were quick to issue statements criticizing Kirk and his remark about Graham.
“Illinois women already know Mark Kirk isn’t on their side by his votes against equal pay and affordable child care for working families,” said Kaitlin Fahey, Duckworth’s campaign manager. “Now we also know he’s humor challenged. Senator Kirk’s ‘joke’ is as offensive as it is unfunny, and he should apologize, personally and immediately.”
Zopp, a former prosecutor with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office campaign issued a statement from the candidate:
“No woman, let alone a woman like me, an African-American and mother of two daughters, who has prosecuted rapists and wife abusers and who has spent much of her career overcoming sexist and racist stereotypes would think his remark either appropriate or funny. Clueless or reckless? Either way it’s time for a change – which is why I’m running.”
Kirk has been criticized for remarks in the past, including his call in 2013 for the mass arrest of what he called the 18,000-strong Gangster Disciples.
He later said he still supported mass arrests of gang members but that he used the 18,000 figure to shock Illinoisans into seeing how extensive the state's gang issue is.
In an interview this year with the Peoria Journal Star, Kirk said people drive faster through black neighborhoods.
"With this state and all of its resources, we could sponsor a whole new class of potential innovators like George Washington Carver and eventually have a class of African-American billionaires," he told the newspaper. "That would really adjust income differentials and make the diversity and outcome of the state much better so that the black community is not the one we drive faster through."
His office later defended his commitment to African-Americans and said he was combating gang violence, trying to keep assault weapons off the street and working within the black community to find aspiring entrepreneurs.
Kirk also had to clarify his view on climate change after complaining that "political correctness" had taken over climate science and misidentifying Leif Eriksson as the discoverer of Greenland.
Eriksson's father, Erik Thorvaldsson, founded the first European settlement on Greenland.
In a clarification, the senator remarked that climate change is real and human activity contributed to it.
Kirk, 55, from Highland Park, served almost 10 years in the House before he was elected to the Senate.
Twitter @KatherineSkiba
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