New Brunswick, NJ – The Menendez for Senate Campaign today released a new digital ad highlighting the striking similarities between Donald Trump, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Republican Senate candidate Bob Hugin—all three attempted to excuse deplorable behavior to either alcohol or just “boys being boys;” in Hugin’s case he blamed both.
“It shouldn’t be surprising that Bob Hugin would mimic the language both Donald Trump and Brett Kavanaugh used to dismiss his own history of discrimination,” said Menendez for Senate Communications Director Steve Sandberg. “Bob Hugin can’t just write off his deplorable behavior towards women and the LGBTQ community at Princeton as simply ‘frat talk’ or ‘locker room talk’ or the result of excessive drinking. He threatened his LGBTQ classmates who dare come out, and denied women access to his exclusive club—pushing others down—just so he and his privileged friends could stay ahead. It’s disgraceful. Bob Hugin can pretend all he wants to be ‘a different kind of Republican,’ but he’s no different than Trump and Kavanaugh—too extreme for New Jersey.”
While at Princeton University, Bob Hugin ran a petition drive to block the school from expanding its anti-discrimination protections to the LGBTQ community. He told the Central Jersey Home News at the time that, if a member of his elite Princeton eating club was found to be gay, they “wouldn’t last long.” Hugin’s record of discrimination also extends to women when he fought a 13-year legal battle all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court to deny women equal opportunity and access to join the same all-male eating club Hugin describes as a “frat.” When he lost that, he called the decision to allow women into eating clubs at Princeton “politically correct fascism.”
When asked about it during the NJTV Senate Debate, Hugin could barely muster up an excuse. “This is like a fraternity we’re talking about and we’re talking about a fraternity 40 years ago,” Hugin said. “It was not a malicious hateful, comment. It was about a fraternity where guys are getting together and having some beers and partying.”
Hugin, Trump, and Kavanaugh’s similarities extend far past their “boys will be boys” attitude. Hugin gave over $200,000 to help elect Trump, served as his New Jersey finance chair, as a Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention, and on Trump’s transition team. Hugin also supported Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
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