This is fucking sick: KSL reports that David Nephi Johnson, chairman of the Wasatch County, Utah Republican Party was arrested this week for, per a police affidavit, grabbing his daughter “by the back of her neck and took her into the bathroom while the sink was filling with water. She disclosed that (Johnson) dunked her head under, brought it out, splashed water in her face, then dunked the victim’s head under again. The victim disclosed she couldn’t breathe for about 20 to 30 seconds.”

Why? She had to clean her room before going out to see her friends but it wasn’t “spotless to (her father’s) expectations” so he shoved her head in the sink after she got home on January 21st. It wasn’t the first time as cops wrote the girl “disclosed multiple incidents involving her” siblings, such as her younger brother who Johnson dragged by the neck “into the bathroom and forced his head under the water. The victim stated that David removed her brother from the water, splashed water on his face and nose, knocked him down and repeated the act multiple times,” for some unspecified familial transgression. Johnson, 54, faces a single count of felony aggravated child abuse.

In a statement the Wasatch GOP’s leadership said they take the allegations seriously, had suspended Johnson, and that Vice Chair Patty Sprunt will be indefinitely helming the ship. They could’ve ended it there but no, Sprunt or whoever’s in charge of communications had to add this:

“The Republican Party stands for the protection of the vulnerable and the upholding of the law. Thus far, the public has not seen any evidence in this case. We encourage the community to refrain from judgment until the facts and evidence have been presented.” They literally had to add it. Even the tiniest risk that a desolate Mormon hinterland’s GOP electorate might see such a headline and begin to question the moral authority of those who badmouth independent thinking is too much. Plus it’s fun when those Godless, smartypants libs get scream “ALMOST EVERY WORD OF THAT WAS FALSE!!!” and “YOUR EVIDENTIARY STANDARD IS INSANE AND YOU OUSTED HIM ANYWAY!” etc.