Rep. Trent Franks resigns over reports he offered aide $5M to be surrogate

Rep. Trent Franks (R. -AZ) said he will be resigning effective immediately after his wife was admitted to the hospital (unlike Al "The Groper" Franken who is taking his sweet time resigning just in case his party changes their collective mind again). 

Franks announcement on Friday comes after he first announced plans to step down in January. His abrupt decision to leave follows news reports that he allegedly repeatedly pressured a former aide to carry his child, offering her $5 million to be a surrogate.

"Last night, my wife was admitted to the hospital in Washington, D.C. due to an ongoing ailment," Franks said in a statement. "After discussing options with my family, we came to the conclusion that the best thing for our family now would be for me to tender my previous resignation effective today, December 8th, 2017."

The congressman first announced his resignation Thursday night after learning of an investigation into his behavior by the House Ethics Committee.

In his Thursday statement, Franks admitted discussing the possibility of surrogacy with two of his female staffers and unknowingly to him, the conversation "made certain individuals uncomfortable." That statement said he'd be vacating his seat Jan. 31, 2018.

Franks discussed his and his wife's difficulty with fertility and adoption of twins, but they wanted another child. 

Apparently, he wasn't aware of how the conversation "made certain individuals uncomfortable," and they never told him that.

It's really sad that there seems to be no clear guidelines for male-female interaction, but there are for interaction with transgender, gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, and everything else people call themselves. Screw up those guidelines and you can get nailed for a hate crime.

Really sad.


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