Michigan lawmaker to female reporter: High school boys could 'have a lot of fun' with you

Paul Egan | Detroit Free Press

LANSING, Mich. – A state senator is facing an investigation in the Legislature after telling a female reporter she should stick around at the Capitol because a group of high school students from an all-boys school, touring the Capitol, could “have a lot of fun” with her.

Michigan State Sen. Peter Lucido, R-Shelby Township, made the comments outside the Senate chamber Tuesday to a reporter from the Michigan Advance while surrounded by a group of male high school students from De La Salle Collegiate, an all-boys Catholic school.

"You’ve heard of De La Salle, right?” the Michigan Advance quoted Lucido as asking reporter Allison Donahue.

When Donahue said she had not, Lucido said: “It’s an all-boys school,” adding: “You should hang around! You could have a lot of fun with these boys, or they could have a lot of fun with you.”

The students then burst into laughter, the online publication reported.

Reached Wednesday morning, Lucido did not dispute the quotes but said they were being taken out of context and out of proportion. He said he did not believe he owed the reporter an apology.

Lucido said he was "not talking about anything sexual" but was "geeked up about the boys coming there," and "I was there to have some fun."

"It was blown out of proportion." he said.

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'The personification of toxic masculinity'

But Lucido, who has expressed interest in running for governor, is facing sharp criticism. On social media, Lansing political observers said there is no context in which his comments were appropriate.

"I am unfortunately not surprised by this," Kara Cook, an environmental and energy adviser to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, said on Twitter. "I was 23 when I started working in politics in Lansing and the number of inappropriate comments or actions that I’ve personally experienced is hard to comprehend. This needs to stop."

I am unfortunately not surprised by this. I was 23 when I started working in politics in Lansing and the number of inappropriate comments or actions that I’ve personally experienced is hard to comprehend. This needs to stop. https://t.co/V2lN8ofX0b — Kara Cook (@kdaniellecook) January 15, 2020

Lonnie Scott, executive director of the liberal group Progress Michigan, said Lucido was "the personification of toxic masculinity and a disgrace to our state."

"We’d call on Lucido to apologize, but we know that for men like him those apologies are often hollow and do nothing to change the culture of objectifying women," Scott said.

The reporter wanted to question Lucido about him posting messages on an anti-Whitmer Facebook group where some members had posted messages advocating violence against Democrats and Muslims.

Lucido said he shared posts about Whitmer budget vetoes but was not aware of the racist posts, or ones advocating violence.

"I don't read all of these sites," he said Wednesday.

Thank you all for the support. I promise I will collect my thoughts soon, but I will say this:



I didn’t want to stand up for myself after that. It’s awkward and in rare cases is it ever taken well and the comments apologized for.



But I’ve stayed silent before. — Allison R. Donahue (@donahual) January 15, 2020

Follow reporter Paul Egan on Twitter @paulegan4.

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