Librarian says GOP candidate checked out nearly all the Pride books just so kids couldn’t

Derrick Van Orden on FOX News
Photo: Screenshot/YouTube

Derrick Van Orden, a man running for Congress and endorsed by Donald Trump is being accused of threatening and harassing staff at a library when he saw a Pride display in a Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin library. One worker claims that the candidate found the display so “disgusting” that he checked out every single book on the display, except for one that someone already had with them.

Van Orden claims to “support equal rights” and denies much of the reported allegations, although he admits he “complained,” but only about one featured book that he claims has “historical inaccuracies” that alluded to the fact that the Republican Party has long opposed LGBTQ rights.

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Van Orden is a candidate to represent Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District and his campaign is based in Prairie Du Chien. He ran in 2020 but lost to incumbent Rep. Ronald Kind (D-WI). Van Orden refiled for 2022, and last month Kind announced that he won’t seek a 14th term.

Van Orden has so far earned the endorsements of House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and former President Donald Trump, the latter of whom threw his support behind Van Orden right after Kind announced he wasn’t running.

Van Orden was present at, but denies involvement in, the storming of the U.S.Capitol on January 6, where a pro-Trump mob attempted to prevent certification of the Presidential election. An analysis found that he bankrolled the trip with leftover cash from his 2020 campaign.

The La Crosse Tribune reports that the incident happened on June 17 at the Prairie du Chien Memorial Library. The Pride display is a regularly occurring display with “included colorful posters and a mix of both fiction and non-fiction books,” according to the paper, but only this year did people begin to take issue with it and send negative messages to the library about it.

Kerrigan Trautsch, a page who was 17 at the time and now 18, talked extensively about what happened. Trautsch, who is out, put up the display and was…

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