 Honorable representatives your children and grandchildren will proudly tell their friends that their parent or grandparent helped to pass this law to protect their innocence. Honorable senators please protect our students and teachers from being forced to live in an alternative universe created by cultural confusion and adolescent fantasies. You just heard from Louisiana pastor turned politician John Raymond who is running to represent district 104 of Louisiana and the clips that you just watched were featured proudly on his campaign website. The first video was a testimony that he gave in support of a bill to ban LGBTQ plus books from school libraries under the pretense of quote-unquote protecting the innocence of children and the second was a testimony that he gave in support of a bill that would mandate the dead naming of trans people in order to again protect children and there's many more videos of him testifying in support of his state GOP's draconian theocratic policies all in an effort to quote-unquote protect children so you're probably sensing a little bit of a theme here right this issue is very close to his heart apparently as a parent and headmaster of a Christian academy now to be fair there's more to John than just wanting to protect children from the LGBTQ plus boogeyman he also owns a Christian radio station and has produced what he calls music videos which I would highly encourage you to check out by the way and on top of that he was the first cast away voted out of survivor Thailand back in 2002 but the main takeaway that I want you to have about John it's that he really really really really cares about protecting kids that's not me editorializing that's basically his mission that's what he focuses primarily on with regards to his political activism the problem is that kids don't need to be protected from LGBTQ plus people they need to be protected from him because he's demonstrated multiple times that he literally poses a danger to children considering the fact that he's been charged with four counts of criminal cruelty towards juveniles as LGBTQ nation explains he was arrested last year after he allegedly punished three students by taping their mouth shut according to nola.com Raymond wrapped packing tape around three 13 year olds heads for talking excessively in class the students were sent back to class where another administrator who felt uncomfortable with the situation removed the tape the students reportedly had trouble breathing and said that removing the tape was painful Raymond turned himself into police after they obtained a warrant for his arrest and was charged with three counts of cruelty to juveniles in a statement Raymond accused students of quote unquote bullying a teacher and said that all three were given the choice to either have their mouths taped shut or have him call their parents and be suspended he denied that the tape was wrapped around their heads and said that it was removed within 10 minutes after the school's principal expressed concern. Raymond was arrested again in May of 2022 this time for allegedly holding a four-year-old boy upside down by the ankles Raymond was accused of whipping the child's buttocks and in a separate incident he was accused of covering the boy's mouth and nose with his hand to stop a tantrum according to the Lafayette Daily Advertiser witnesses said the boy could not breathe and went limp remaining out of it and lethargic. So we're not talking about a one-off situation he can't say look I lost my temper I had a lapse in judgment and I overreacted because that that would be bad in and of itself right but we are talking about an alleged serial child abuser here who poses a real danger to children that he's around seemingly all the time given that he is the headmaster of a Christian Academy but yet in May he told USA Today that he is completely innocent and called the allegations preposterous but at the same time in April he released a statement after the story broke admitting that he taped the boy's mouth shut but it was only for 10 minutes like we saw that in the article but at the same time we know that he's also lying about that because a local CBS affiliate stated that it was about 45 minutes. The arrest by slide out police Thursday came after a complaint about March 18th school discipline he administered that was investigated by the Office of Children and Family Services. The police department said another administrator at the school had to cut the tape wrapped around the kids heads after 45 minutes when they had trouble breathing. So the three boys allegedly had tape over their mouths for 45 minutes not 10 minutes and even if it were just 10 minutes that still is completely unacceptable but he put tapes over their heads allegedly sent them back to class and they were probably humiliated on top of that they couldn't breathe according to them. So this is serious this is unacceptable but the allegations are preposterous even though yeah I kind of put the tape on their heads it was only for 10 minutes though actually I didn't put it over the heads I put it over their mouths I mean look he's full of shit I don't believe him I believe that he did do these things and I think that most people in the community do as well but when you consider that allegation from the three boys along with the other allegations that we heard of right physically assaulting these children he'd go to jail if he did that to an adult but he spanked them he held a four-year-old upside down allegedly by the ankles and nearly suffocated a kid to stop a tantrum I mean it's evident that this man is a clear danger to children and should not be around any child but yet this man wants you to believe that he cares about protecting children and it's his number one issue yeah kids don't need to be protected from LGBTQ plus people John they need to be protected from abusers like you alleged abusers I should say so once again we have another instance where an accusation from a republican politician turns out to be a confession because as we all know every accusation is a confession everything that they say about other groups of people is usually them projecting because they're the ones who pose the danger that they say queer people pose to children but I mean the hypocrisy doesn't just stop there at the time that he was arrested and charged with child cruelty he was also a member of the executive committee for the Louisiana Republican Party he's well known in right-wing circles in his state now he's currently running to be a state representative and was formally officially connected to the GOP in the state so the question is what was their response to all of this right because the bills that he testified in support in support of that you watched at the beginning of this video those were all pieces of legislation that the state republican party sponsored meaning that they also have made protecting children from LGBTQ plus people in particular one of their main priorities so the question is what are they going to do I mean naturally it seems like their only option is to denounce and distance themselves from this man since he was literally charged with child cruelty so that way I don't know people believe them when they say they care about protecting children but that's not what happened they have not distanced themselves from him in fact the state party has endorsed his campaign I am not making this up at the top of his website you can see the state party's emblem and an image that says that he was endorsed by the Louisiana Republican Party so I just want to pause right there to take this all in the Republican Party of Louisiana who has dedicated a lot of time on the taxpayer's dollars mind you to protecting children is choosing to endorse somebody who is charged with child cruelty make it make sense because it doesn't now to make matters even worse it's not like this was the only choice and there was nobody else in the race there was another republican in the race that they could have endorsed instead but they didn't do that even though if you go to the opponent's website the opponent of John Raymond to be clear it's one of the first things you see when you look at his issues page is that he wants to protect children so the state party literally has another option who says clearly that I too want to protect children presumably from the LGBTQ plus boogeyman and the Louisiana Republican Party said sorry man we're going to go with the guy who was charged with child cruelty instead it just is so outrageous that you have to assume this is a mistake right perhaps he took it upon himself to pretend like he was endorsed and he put that on his website when they didn't actually endorse him this wouldn't be the first time that this has happened right we've seen politicians in the past pretend like they were endorsed or imply heavily that they were endorsed when they didn't actually get that endorsement so perhaps he is lying or he assumed that they would endorse him since he has a longtime association with the party but no that's not actually right either the Shreveport Times reached out to the state republican party and asked them did you really endorse the alleged child abuser after your whole thing has been protecting kids and the response was yeah of course we did they explain Louisiana Republican Party chairman Louis Gervitch confirmed in a text that the executive committee endorsed Raymond Raymond's opponent in the race for the house district 104 seat fellow republican Jay Gull of Manville said he was shocked by the endorsement I bet as a lifelong republican it's an embarrassment said Gull while acknowledging Raymond's right to the presumption of innocence quote the party puts itself out there as a protector of children said Gull a former marine and businessman who now manages his family's real estate portfolio quote I can't express how disappointed I am that the Louisiana Republican Party has chosen to endorse a candidate with not one not two not three but four criminal charges of cruelty to children and I mean yeah Jay's right but Jay you might not have child abuse charges against you but uh were you on survivor though because we kind of want to go with the guy who was on survivor maybe the Louisiana Republican Party is just CBS reality show diehards and they just they're like nope that guy he was on survivor so we want that clout I guess it's going to help us with the younger demographics the kids who are still watching survivor in 2023 I mean I don't know what to say I would say that this is extremely embarrassing not just for the Louisiana Republican Party but republicans everywhere but I mean that point is moot because this party doesn't have the capacity to feel shame so of course they're not going to be embarrassed by something that is incredibly hypocritical oh and one more thing the district leans heavily towards republicans and there's no incumbents so he's probably actually going to win yeah now John Raymond has previously stated that he doesn't actually think the charges are going to interfere with this campaign and so far he's been proven correct so uh yeah there you have it this is the modern republican party in a nutshell they are so concerned about protecting kids that they're going to endorse a man literally charged with four counts of child cruelty to demonstrate that they're really dedicated to protecting children I mean Jesus Christ it feels like this is a parody but nope it's just the modern day republican party folks pride