For years anti-vaxxers have been sharing their concerns and championing their causes online and in film. With the emergence of COVID, the conversation has shifted from the vaccines we give to children to the vaccines all of us choose to take or not. It has become a political issue, debated or discouraged by citizens and politicians alike. Many of those against vaccines belong to the Republican Party.
Perhaps galvanized by all of the vaccine discussion as of late, South Dakota State Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller recently took her beliefs about vaccines into the workplace, in a one-sided conversation with a staffer. The interaction was so bizarre and so inappropriate that it has been labeled a scandal and the senator is now facing consequences for her rhetoric.
Frye-Mueller was talking about a bill when she suddenly asked the staffer if she had vaccinated her son.
Frye-Mueller has since been suspended and stripped of her voting rights. The punishment comes after an unnamed staffer claimed the senator became aggressive during a conversation about the staffer’s decision to vaccinate her child, The Daily Beast reported.
On January 24, Frye-Mueller and her husband came into the Legislative Research Council office. After discussing the draft of a bill, she turned to the staffer and asked if her son had been vaccinated.
Frye-Mueller told the staffer her son would have issues because of the vaccines.
When the staffer said yes, Frye-Mueller allegedly launched into a rant. “Without allowing me to elaborate further, she proceeded to point her finger at me and aggressively say that this will cause him issues,” the staffer wrote in a statement.
Frye-Mueller reportedly claimed people were being used as "guinea pigs" for the pharmaceutical industry and told the staffer that by choosing to vaccinate she was “taking away God’s gift of immunity from your son.”
When the staffer said she wasn't breastfeeding, Frye-Mueller told her to suckle her husband to get her milk to come in.
Frye-Mueller didn’t stop there. She told the staffer that her child could “get” Down syndrome, autism, or “die from those vaccines.” That conversation alone would have been more than enough to warrant the senator's suspension, but the already invasive conversation took a turn toward the bizarre when the Frye-Mueller asked the staffer if she was breastfeeding her son.
When the staffer said that she used formula, Frye-Mueller reportedly offered even more unwanted advice.
“I was told by Senator Frye-Mueller that my husband could ‘suck on my breasts’ to get milk to come in. She indicated ‘a good time for that is at night.’ She proceeded to provide hand gestures to her chest area and motion to her husband to see if he agreed. He smiled and nodded,” the staffer wrote.
The staffer said she would think about it in an attempt to end the conversation.
Going back to vaccines, Frye-Mueller allegedly had tears in her eyes as she told the staffer to stop vaccinating her infant. The staffer told the senator she would think about it. “I did so in the hope that it would end the conversation and not upset her further,” she wrote.
The staffer is set to testify about the encounter before the Senate Select Committee on Discipline and Expulsion. In defense of her actions, Frye-Mueller, who is serving her second term as a member of the South Dakota Freedom Caucus, said she considered the staffer a friend.
“It’s unfortunate that any misunderstanding that she may have had from my advice, and my intention to help her with her situation in a private and confidential conversation between women,” Frye-Mueller said according to KeloLand.
In response, Frye-Mueller sued, saying her freedom of speech had been violated.
Frye-Mueller appeared before the Discipline and Expulsion Committee on Monday, but did not speak. Her silence comes after her decision to file a lawsuit against Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck, the chamber’s highest ranking member.
The lawsuit states that Schoenbeck violated Frye-Mueller’s free speech. Nine senators, including two Democrats, will determine whether Frye-Mueller should be permanently expelled from the body, KTIV reported.
The committee is set to make its final decision on Tuesday. During the hearing, members will hear testimony from the staffer, according to KeloLand. Frye-Mueller and the employee are allowed to have legal representation present. Once the committee has come to a decision, a transcript from the hearing will be made available to the public.
