Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton confirmed that he did send a photo of himself in the nude, which has been circulating online, and apologized for the indiscretion.
“While separated from my second wife, prior to the divorce, I had sexual relationships with other mature adult women,” Barton, said in a statement, first reported by the Texas Tribune. “Each was consensual. Those relationships have ended. I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down.”
A censored image of Barton was originally posted by an anonymous twitter user, and has since been passed around, along with a message apparently from Barton that said “I want u soo bad [sic]. Right now. Deep and hard.”
Others have retweeted the image with various comments.
This Joe Barton thing is a non-story. To prove how much it doesn’t bother me, I’m tweeting out the photo in question. pic.twitter.com/oBsEjlbxdF
— George Colombo (@georgecolombo) November 22, 2017
Barton recently announced he would seek re-election, but earlier this week he told the Texas Tribune that he is “talking to a number of people, all of whom I have faith in and am deciding how to respond, quite frankly.”
Barton has been endorsed by a number of conservative family groups, including Family Research Council, the Christian Coalition of America, and Concerned Women for America, according to a post on his campaign website.
A Texas “revenge porn” law that went into effect in 2015 classifies the public sharing of sexually explicit photos that were sent with the expectation of privacy as a class A misdemeanor.
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