Whitney: 'Face palm guy' worse than Trump
Isaac Latterell got his 15 minutes of fame Tuesday night, which was sort of the point.
The state legislator from Tea is a member of the South Dakota delegation at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where Donald Trump was formally declared the party’s nominee during a traditional roll call of votes.
As state GOP chairperson Pam Roberts announced that South Dakota’s 29 delegate votes would go to Trump, Latterell made sure he was visible on camera and dramatically covered his face with his hand, sparking a surge of social media attention for his “face palm” of protest.
“I just think that it’s a sad day for the Republican Party,” Latterell later told the Argus Leader.
S.D. delegates hope convention will boost Trump support
Most assumed that he meant Trump was undeserving of a presidential nomination because of his campaign bombast, political inexperience and reactionary views.
But it’s also accurate to say that Latterell, who voted for Ted Cruz in the state primary, doesn’t think Trump goes far enough when it comes to fire-and-brimstone stances on social issues such as abortion and LGBT rights.
The District 6 House member, first elected in 2012, has been an aggressive advocate of curtailing the reproductive rights of women in South Dakota and once saw fit to compare Planned Parenthood to ISIS. Latterell unsuccessfully proposed legislation in 2014 that critics say could have banned abortion procedures as early as seven weeks, in violation of federal law as declared by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“While we rightly take the speck out of our neighbor’s eye by holding ISIS accountable, let us be sure to take the plank out of our own eye by holding Planned Parenthood accountable,” Latterell wrote in a blog post in support of the bill, which referenced the “dismemberment or decapitation” of fetuses but was seen by opponents of a way to generally curtail abortions and even imprison doctors.
“I think the majority of South Dakotans would agree that comparing Planned Parenthood to a terrorist organization is just going too far," Planned Parenthood spokesperson Jennifer Aulwes said at the time.
Latterell also failed to pass a provocatively titled Preborn Infant Beheading Ban in 2015, continuing a train of thought in which he compared a women’s reproductive rights to the killing of puppies, reinforced by a cute puppy picture on his blog.
Last session, Latterell helped sponsor a 20-week abortion ban signed into law by Gov. Dennis Daugaard. Supporters pointed to the 20-week threshold as a point when unborn children have developed the ability to feel pain, a claim disputed by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association.
S.D. delegate says facepalm was act of protest
South Dakota, which already had a legally questionable 72-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion, further exposed itself to potential liability with the 20-week ban. This was underscored last month, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws restricting Texas abortion clinics in a landmark ruling that makes it more difficult for states to provide obstacles to legal abortions.
“When a State severely limits access to safe and legal procedures, women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners at great risk to their health and safety,” wrote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a majority opinion.
Ironically, Ginsburg and Latterell are linked by highly public expressions of distaste for Trump, but at least she has the Constitution on her side. For all his perceived insularity and xenophobia, Trump has shown a willingness to support LGBT causes and even abortion rights, while Latterell appears determined to keep South Dakota in the dark ages.
While supporting several bills widely viewed as discriminatory to transgender citizens during the last session, Latterell explained his position by saying, “We all need the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, no matter our situation.”
That comment at a public forum drew an angry reaction from those in attendance, who failed to see the connection between civil liberties and Christian judgement. Many of those same people may have looked at Latterell’s status as a representative of their state Tuesday night and performed their own extended “face palm,” hoping for brighter days ahead.
Argus Leader Media city columnist Stu Whitney can be reached at swhitney@argusleader.com. Follow him on Twitter @stuwhitney