Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Sean Parnell\u2019s military thriller \u201cMan of War\u201d contains graphic scenes of violence against female characters, raising additional questions about his attitude toward women in the wake of court testimony that he physically and verbally abused his estranged wife.<\/p>\n
Parnell, who has emerged as the frontrunner in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary, portrays multiple scenes of men assaulting women in the 2018 novel, the first of four in a fiction series written by the Army combat veteran.<\/p>\n
Those scenes are in a new light following his wife Laurie Snell\u2019s testimony under oath Monday that her husband strangled her and assaulted their children. Those were among the explosive allegations made in a child custody hearing, an account of which was reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHe tried to choke me out on a couch and I literally had to bite him,\u201d Snell said in a Butler, Pa. courtroom, according to the Inquirer. \u201cHe was strangling me.\u201d<\/p>\n Snell\u2019s tearful testimony included a claim that Parnell pinned her down and called her a \u201cwhore\u201d and \u201cpiece of s—,\u201d the newspaper reported. <\/p>\n In a statement afterward, Parnell said Snell\u2019s testimony was false, and that \u201cthe truth will prevail\u201d once he can make his case in court next week. <\/p>\n \u201cIn court the mother of my children made a number of false allegations against me,\u201d Parnell said. \u201cThose allegations are lies. There is no truth to them, not one. They are complete fabrications; not distortions or misrepresentations \u2014 just flat-out lies.\u201d<\/p>\n In \u201cMan of War,\u201d Parnell features several scenes in which women were battered and smacked, describing female characters being dragged across the floor and pulled by their hair \u2014 and the attackers reveling in their pain.<\/p>\n \u201cNate grabbed a handful of Meg\u2019s hair and roughly forced her head around,\u201d Parnell wrote of a female CIA agent being beaten by a rogue military official who \u201csavored the grimace of pain that flitted across her face and the fear that sparked in her eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen she tried to jerk free, he struck a blade against her cheek and smiled at the involuntary flinch caused by the cold steel touching warm flesh,\u201d the book says.<\/p>\n The man in the scene then strangled the woman. She was zip-tied, dragged and punched \u201chard in the side of the head\u201d as she struggled with the man, according to the passage. Elsewhere, Parnell described the woman as someone male colleagues \u201cjust wanted to f—,\u201d including one who \u201ckept staring at her tits.\u201d<\/p>\n In another scene, Parnell describes three men preparing to gang-rape a woman while her crying children huddled under a table and watched. One of the men, whom he noted was twice the size of the woman, had \u201ca toothy grin spread across his face.\u201d<\/p>\n Elsewhere in Parnell\u2019s first book, a different female character seduced \u2014 and then physically and verbally abused \u2014 a younger woman, calling her a \u201clittle coke whore.\u201d The older woman \u201cliked the flicker of pain\u201d in her younger target\u2019s eyes, Parnell wrote.<\/p>\n His campaign did not directly respond to a question about why he described, in multiple scenes in the book, attackers taking pleasure in their assaults on women.<\/p>\n Parnell, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, hasn\u2019t attempted to conceal his fiction-writing career. While the campaign website only mentions the title of Parnell\u2019s nonfiction 2016 New York Times best-seller \u201cOutlaw Platoon,\u201d an account of his military service in Afghanistan a decade earlier, it acknowledges he has authored multiple fiction books.<\/p>\n His other works of fiction don\u2019t feature comparable scenes of violence against women, according to a review of the books by POLITICO.<\/p>\n Parnell, who attended Ranger school and was part of the 10th Mountain Division, receiving specialized training for combat in rugged elements, was able to draw from his own military and experience to include real-world details in his military thriller novels. <\/p>\n His campaign has dismissed attacks on his character, releasing internal polling last week that showed him with a 20-point lead over the other Republicans \u2014 with 57 percent of GOP primary voters still undecided in the race. <\/p>\n The seat held by retiring Sen. Pat Toomey is crucial for the GOP to defend in 2022 to take the Senate majority, and the new assault allegations could present a significant obstacle for Parnell in the primary while calling into question his viability as a candidate.<\/p>\n The new accusations make Parnell the third leading GOP Senate candidate this cycle to face claims of domestic or sexual abuse. Retired football star Herschel Walker \u2014 also endorsed by Trump \u2014 leads in the Georgia GOP primary, despite recent news coverage of his ex-wife securing a protective order against him in 2005, alleging violent behavior. She previously said<\/a> Walker pointed a gun at her head and threatened to kill her.<\/p>\n In Missouri, attack ads are already on the air targeting former Gov. Eric Greitens, who was accused of tying up his former hairdresser in his basement and sexually assaulting her. A Missouri legislative committee that investigated the claims described the woman<\/a> as a \u201ccredible witness.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff Bartos, one of Parnell\u2019s top Republican opponents in the Pennsylvania race, quickly began attacking Parnell as anti-woman after Parnell received the Trump endorsement in September. Days after Trump\u2019s announcement, the Bartos campaign distributed police reports showing Snell had taken out protective orders against him. The temporary orders, which Snell obtained in 2017 and 2018, were later expunged by judge.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s beyond absurd\u201d that the media and Bartos\u2019 campaign \u201care so obsessed with smearing American war hero and New York Times bestselling author Sean Parnell that they are now trying to hold him personally responsible for the actions of made-up characters in his works of fiction that do not exist in real life,\u201d campaign spokesperson Ian Prior said in an emailed statement last week that also noted that Bartos interned in the Bill Clinton White House. \u201cWhat\u2019s next, a bombshell expos\u00e9 attacking Sean Parnell for his time overseas fighting terrorists?\u201d <\/p>\n Ahead of this week\u2019s child custody hearings, a judge denied Parnell\u2019s requests for a gag order against his wife. Parnell is scheduled to make his arguments in the case next week.<\/p>\n