Politics

Obama To Campaign For Democratic Candidate Under Sexual Misconduct Cloud

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David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Former President Barack Obama plans to be in election campaign mode this weekend as promotes a slew of hopeful California Democrats, including one under the dark cloud of sexual misconduct allegations: Gil Cisneros.

As Roll Call reports, Obama will be campaigning for six other Democrats who are vying for seats currently occupied by Republicans. But Obama’s apparent support of Cisneros is drawing questions since the former president did not initially back his candidacy for reasons that were never revealed.

Melissa Fazli, an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the California assembly, has accused Cisneros of suggesting the two have sex at a California Democratic Party convention in San Diego last February.

Fazli alleges that an apparently drunken Cisneros wanted to go back to Fazli’s hotel room to talk about donations to her campaign. She says when the subject of donations came up again over the phone, Cisneros queried, “What are you going to do for me?”

“Either he wants me to be his spy or he wants me to have sex with him. After the encounter at the elevator in San Diego, I thought he wanted to have sex with me in exchange for a $4,400 donation,” Fazli said a news release that she included in a March 2018 tweet.

“I know there will be skeptics and people who will publicly flog me for coming forward, but I thought it was necessary to let people know what kind of man is Gil Cisneros, an unethical creepy man who is using inappropriate and bullying tactics to intimate others in order win a seat in Congress,” she added.

As Fox News notes, local Republicans have seized on the sexual misconduct allegations to suggest “time’s up” for Cisneros.

“Gil Cisneros thinks the rules don’t apply to him,” said Courtney Alexander, communications director of the Republican-sponsored PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund.

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