Republican Lawmaker Defends Marriages For 12 Year Old Girls

A Republican state senator from Missouri is on the defensive after he voted AGAINST a measure that would have outlawed adults marrying children (pre-teens, to be exact) and then he doubled down saying that he knows a woman that was married at 12 and she seems to be happy. These are the real groomers in our society - not the drag queens that Republicans have turned into the villains of the day. Farron Cousins discusses what happened.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

So we have been listening to conservatives for a year or so. Now, say that everything they don't like is somehow a groomer. Drag queens, according to Republicans, are groomers, liberals are groomers, Democrats are groomers, progressive are groomer. Everybody's a groomer according to Republican, except of course, the clergy and other Republicans. And yet, every time we end up with a story where either you have a, a pastor busted for, you know, uh, uh, um, abusing children or a Republican out there voting against restricting child marriages. Yeah, it's, it's always the people that Republicans love to cozy up with, or it's them themselves, such as the case with Missouri State lawmaker, state Senator Mike Moon. Now, this week, Mr. Moon was called out during a hearing in the Missouri Senate for voting against a measure that would have outlawed adults marrying children as young as 12 years old. Mr. Moon said, I'm not gonna outlaw that. So when he was called out in this hearing on Tuesday, moon not only defended his vote, but went on to defend child marriage. So here is the clip, you can hear it for yourself, Mike Moon defending 12 year olds getting married here in the United States. Take a look.

I've heard you talk about parents' rights to raise their kids how they want. In fact, I just double checked. You voted no on making it illegal for kids to be married to adults at the age of 12 if their parents consented to it. You said, actually that should be the law because it's the parent's, right? And the kid's right to decide what's best for them to be raped by an adult. Okay? Do you know any kids who have been married do at age 12? That was the law. Do you know kids? You voted not to change it. Do you know any kids who have been married at age 12? I I don't need to. I do. Uh, and guess what? They're still married, gentlemen.

Now, I don't know about you, but I consider that to be groomer talk. You voted against the measure, so you can't deny that you voted against it. And there you are on the floor of that Senate saying, Hey, I know a lady who got married at 12. She seems to be happy today. They're still married. Probably feels a little trapped, I gotta tell you. But Mr. Moon, Senator Moon, uh, did come out and he released a video statement, you know, trying to clear the air. And he said, quote, much confusion has been generated recording a statement I made during a committee hearing this week. Just to be clear, I do not support adults marrying minors. Uh, the truth is, in the video below, he says, he put that on Twitter. You do not support adults marrying minors. That's your statement. But in the video clip we just showed, you did not deny that you voted against a bill that would've outlawed adults marrying minors. So you can't say that, Hey, I don't support something, and then vote to let that thing still happen.

So you may not wanna say that you support it, but by your actions, by your vote, you did support it. Now, you can quibble over terminology all day long if you want, but you didn't vote to outlaw it. You voted to keep it legal, which means your vote supported it, which means you support it. And you can't deny the reality of that video clip, which of course is why we showed the video clip so you can hear for yourself, hear his own words. And by the way, in his little defense video, he once again mentioned the 12 year old girl who got married and he, uh, said she had actually got married after she became pregnant at 12. And then he said, tragic circumstances such as these can only be overcome through one avenue, the grace and mercy of God and the word of the Lord.

No, they can be overcome by you voting to pass laws to make it illegal. That's how they become overcome. That's the only way is God ain't stepping in. He hadn't stepped in to stop any of the, the, the mass killings we've had in this country. Has he, he's not stepping in to force Republicans to vote against child marriage. That's up to you. Stop pinning this on God. Like what an easy out, right? Like, I don't have to take responsibilities of my action. I can just say, ah, it's God's plan.