“I shouldn’t have done it,” Republican Mike Yenni tells his local Fox 8 news station, “being a married man, being a father, and being an elected official.”
He is, of course, referring to the sext scandal involving himself and a Catholic school boy that made international headlines earlier this year.
40-year-old Yenni is the President of Jefferson Parish in Louisiana. Back in September, he was outed for sending some pretty racy text messages to a 17-year-old high school senior who he may or may not have meet at a school graduation function.
Related: Married Conservative Politician Outed For Sexting Teen Boy, Kissing Him In Mall Bathroom
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In the interview, Yenni starts by calling the sexting incident “a mistake” and “one of the stupidest decisions that I’ve ever made” but insists that it doesn’t define him.
“Everybody thinks, oh, something sexual happened. But there was no sex, ” Yenni says. “That’s the clearest thing that I can possibly bring up, is that there was no sex. This is about inappropriate texting.”
Yenni goes on to say that the sexting, er, “inappropriate texting” only lasted for a short while, “probably less than two weeks,” before once again adding, “There was no sex.”
Related: Republican Lawmaker Who Sexted Teen Boy Issues Video Response, Apologizes But Doesn’t Come Out
When asked about allegations that he supplied the teenager with sexy underwear, Yenni sidesteps the question by saying: “There are fictional elements to that story. … I’m not going to get into the line-by-line, I’m not going to debate it.”
(Our translation: Yes, he bought the boy sexy underwear.)
One thing Yenni is absolutely, 100 percent denying is that he met the teen at a high school function.
Related: Did Catholic School Where Mike Yenni Met Teen Boyfriend Know About His Lust For Underagers?
“I never saw him at any high school function, never spoke to him at a high school function, I don’t know where that came from,” he said. “All these innuendos that I’m banned from Jesuit High School–my wife and I were just there a couple of weeks ago at an event.”
He also denies being gay.
“There was no sexual contact,” he says. “To simply say, I’m not gay.”
Watch the complete (and completely awkward) interview below…
Paco
“the way they’ve tried allude to certain things… by trying to define me as a person I’m not. ”
The “straight”, closet case mantra. Those guys really need to come up with some new excuses for denying that they are gay or bisexual. Willing to bet this was only the first time he got caught. Probably a long history of gay sex there. It’s obvious he is lying and that just makes him look bad. Be honest.
ChrisK
I’m not gay either. I might love a nice c*ck from time to time but I’m 100% straight because I watch football and talk about sexy women. Learn the difference people!
dvlaries
Yenni and Mark Foley and Dennis Hastert would probably never run out of things to talk about.
*
“No matter how cynical you try to become, it’s never enough to keep up.” – Lily Tomlin
ChrisK
Loved this interview. He contradicts himself multiple times. Dude. just answer the effing Fox news interviewers questions just once with some honesty. All he had to do was admit to being Bi-Sexual and what a stupid ass I was and this would’ve blown over eventually. Now you’re looked at as a big fat liar on top of a closet case. His biggest defense was there was no sex over and over. Pulease. We all know where it was going so give it a break.
Why can’t Republicans ever be honest? I just don’t get it. Congrads though. Now you get to join the Larry Craig club.
ingyaom
“There was absolutely no sex involved”… maybe he was just trying to decide if he wanted to adopt the teen-aged boy.
ChrisK
Shows the difference between a Republican and a Democrat. Democrats resign and accept where as just Republicans lie lie lie.
norodeocowboy
Oh, is THAT what Bill Clinton did?
Brian
I don’t agree with what Mike Yenni did on the cell phone but I’m glad he has not identified as gay. I’m glad that he’s married to a woman and identifies as not-gay.
I get so sick of the Fascists in the gay community who want to own men with identity politics. Sick, sick, sick. It’s refreshing when a man rejects the gay identity.
J.T.
It’s sad to see yet another closet case flapping around blurting out inconsistent and absurd denials. But I think the real story here is about a conniving brat for waited two years to out a man who probably didn’t deserve it. Mike Yenni has no record of antigay politics. All he did was flirt with a young man who’s gay. Does his behavior rise to the level of abuse? Was it a crime? Was anyone hurt? The answer is no in all three cases. The only people are Yanni and his family. If Mike Yenni ever comes out of the closet it will be as a mistrusting and embittered man who doesn’t feel comfortable in either the straight or gay worlds.
norodeocowboy
Well, it’s not as though the gay community has a long history of tolerance for bisexuality, is it? “Pray the straight away” might as well have been (still be?) a sub-meme within the community.
ChrisK
@Brian: Yeah, because lying to yourself and to those around you is just so refreshing..
JoeyRamone
@Brian: always a pleasure when some gal from breitbart comes over and spreads the love. check out your brownshirt commentators latest loving comments to the “fags,” as many of them put it. http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/11/23/gay-serial-killer-guilty-murdering-men-met-grindr/ I hear they like to spit on you and call you all sorts of names before the beat the crap out of you! Wow!
norodeocowboy
Scratch a literal gay basher, you very often find a teenager or young adult who was raped by an older man. The creation of such a psyche is especially likely when the kid was in those awkward years, unsure of his manhood. Just like with most serial killers and other violent sociopaths, first look for the abuser.
JoeyRamone
According to
http://www.wwltv.com/news/investigations/fbi-looks-into-jp-president-mike-yennis-allegedly-explicit-texts-to-young-man/327862974
According to printouts of those texts, Yenni tells the teen he wants him naked.
Days later, Yenni writes to ask the 17-year-old if he’s worn the underwear Yenni bought him. Yenni says he wants to see him model it.
Then Yenni texts the teen to say he wants to perform a sex act on him that night.
Stilinski26
May be he identifies himself as a non binary, gender fluid pansexual
norodeocowboy
More and more, I’m liking the Japanese movement to drop the labels. Don’t really dislike the idea of trying to figure out exactly who and what you are, but bloody well am not interested in obsessing over YOUR identity, mate. They can take their alternate pronouns and shove them in whatever new and exciting internal cavities that they’ve Imagineered onto the green screen.
Stilinski26
@ChrisK: Bill Clinton?
Low Country Boy
@Brian: I’m glad, too. It just is another example of a straight, white guy being a sexual predator.
ChrisK
@Stilinski26: But he didn’t. He said “straight” only.
Point taken.
Brian
I don’t approve of Mike Yenni’s sexting at all. However, Mike Yenni is entitled to identify as he pleases. If he is primarily attracted to women, it’s his absolute right and justification to identify as straight, not bisexual. Nobody out there has the right to impose an identity onto him that is either inaccurate or not of his choosing.
I’m so pleased that he does not identify as gay or bisexual. So pleased. The reason for my joy is that I think it’s the gay community which is most obsessed with identity politics. Obsessed, obsessed, obsessed.
It’s as if you willingly go around with a stamp on your foreheads that says “gay” and a GPS satellite system permanently implanted in your brains that says “take me to a gay bar”. Everything is gay. Gay, gay, gay. You even impose an identity onto bitumen.
1EqualityUSA
Brian is Maggie Gallagher, carbo-loading and spewing her twaddle.
1EqualityUSA
JT said, ” Mike Yenni has no record of anti-gay politics.” If the man is GOP, he’s anti-gay politics.
Hussain-TheCanadian
@1EqualityUSA: LMAO!!
Queen bought the boy underwear, told him to wear it, take pictures, and send them over to him; if that’s not gay, then i’m the quee…I mean king of straights.
norodeocowboy
Are you absolutely sure that he isn’t channeling his past life as Robert Maplethorpe? Bob took lots of pictures of young girls’ who-whos, but I’m pretty sure that he wasn’t letting it slip that he was a closet (n)homo.
Herman75
Sounds almost like the Florida congressman that texted weird sh!t to Congressional pages in DC.
As the young man suggests, there are likely a number of other youngsters Yenni preyed on.
norodeocowboy
“preyed”? Are you implying that Barnie Frank was actually a sexual predator, who did in fact violate the Mann Act, and who deserved to do time in prison, just as his Conservative critics said?
nitejonboy
Ahh the horny, corrupt politician..from Earl Long to Edwin Edwards to this clown, we sure do know how to grow em’ here in Louisiana!!
Herman75
Louisiana has it’s own brand of politics, right? Parishes, Catholics, conservatives, voodoo, boy lovers…..
Josh447
He’s bi, and he is struggling with having others know it. I wish him well in coming to terms with coming out to himself, if he ever does. He’s in a very tough place and if he doesn’t know it already, the public knows he’s bi and is out to them, he just isn’t ready to admit it for fear of severe retaliation. But that’s already happened. Time he read his own handwriting on the wall.
Jack Meoff
The fact that he reiterates that there was no sex so many times tells me that something happened but that they have paid the kid off to keep his mouth shut. There may not have been actual penetrative sex but I bet there was plenty of touching etc.
norodeocowboy
Too far. That’s tantamount to accepting that the notion that it’s unreasonable to expect those who are pedophiles or hebephiles to refrain from expressing themselves in criminal, exploitative action. I don’t fault a man for his desires, just for his actions. Hell, were our desires made manifest, more than half of all women would happily submit rape by the “right” man. The overwhelming majority of us get that the fantasy ain’t the reality. (I vividly recall the ‘old days’, when 3 out of 4 gay tales at the local bookstore concerned ‘chicken hawking”. See, in real life, the chickens seldom ‘see the light’ after they’ve been grounded and pounded.
Brian
@Josh447: Women tend to punish men who swing both ways, so I can understand the reticence of many men when it comes to conceding to this ability. This is especially the case for married men – a married man has to abide by his wife’s demands, one of which is that he must not displease her. The ability to swing both ways in men is punished by women.
In any case, I’m not happy with using the word “bisexual” to describe Mr Yenni. Let’s just say he is 95% attracted to women and 5% attracted to men. He is entitled to not have to identify as bisexual.
Chris
@Jack Meoff: I agree. “He doth protest too much.”
However, whether he’s gay or not is irrelevant to his behaviors. That a near-40 year old man is sexting a high-school senior is inappropriate; that those sexts seem to have been unwanted and un-reciprocated mean that this guy may have crossed the line into creepy if not the illegal harassment of someone in a less powerful position than he is.
I’ll leave it to his wife and children to decide the family-related stuff that this raises. However, if you wrap politics around this — that yet another Republican does stuff that goes against their spouted morality — that is what galls me, regardless his personally not having voted against LGBT issues.
norodeocowboy
Yes, I’ve noticed that Progressives seldom seem at all bothered that Bill Clinton is a known sexual abuser and flasher, not to mention that there’s a real possibility that he’s an actual rapist. Crickets.
Deepdow
@Brian:
I hope everyone remembers this commenter. Never fall for it.
He claims happiness when people don’t identify as gay, he calls gay people fascists, but has no problem, none, when people identify as straight. It’s telling and a perfect example of the harm of homophobia. The depth of Brian’s self-hatred extends to other people. Brian is the saddest gay man I’ve ever witnessed. Sadder even than the other self-hating gay male politician that this article is about. Brian never has a problem with straight people identifying as straight or heterosexual. Brian has no problem with generalizing gay people. He finds no issue with his own hypocrisy. He is mentally ill and wishes to spread his madness to others. This is not right.
norodeocowboy
Never met a straight man or woman who insists on telling folks their orientation, except when in a room filled with those who won’t let it go. Frankly, when a man does it, the rest of us just look at one another and silently conclude that he’s a closet case.
Deepdow
@Brian:
You are the one obsessed with identity politics. As soon as gay people, black people, anyone not straight, white and male claims their identity – all of a sudden it’s mere identity politics that we’re obsessed about. I hope you choke to death on your turkey today Brian. I really do.
Josh447
People,
Brian is a paid plant to stir up drama-clicks for advertising ratings. The more the clicks/comments on a site, the more advertisers are inclined to buy ad space here. He is particularly here for that reason and that reason only. Being contrary then agreeable on other posts is the recipe.
Gates
I say leave the man alone. On a scale of 1 to 10 for bad shit politicians do this is a 0. No one was hurt and the boy was legal in Louisiana where the texting occurred. If Yenni doesn’t want to identify as gay that’s fine, he may have just been curious. Straight men sext with men quite often. But avoiding the questions instead of answering truthfully was a bad idea, they have the text messages from the cell phones, but Republicans always lie even when caught red handed on video, or in this case, cell phone.
Josh447
Gates,
In this country infidelity by a politician rates a 10 last time I took the puritanical pulse check. He met with and kissed the kid and texted he wanted to see the kid naked. The guy cheated on his wife, the kiss of death if caught. His wife is pregnant with their second child, she has pretty much got to sail with the story. If children weren’t part of the mix, she’d most likely bolt. This bi guy isn’t sorry for what he did, but he’s crazy sorry he got caught. I agree with you, he really shot himself in the foot with this interview. He says he doesn’t know why he sent those texts. Funny, we all do, mr. horndog biguy.
My2Cents
I actually feel bad for him. Especially given that he was not an anti-gay politician. But I can’t believe he has waited so long to speak out about this and then to come with such a weak and feckless excuse as this. I know it’s hard to have all of your business so publicized and frankly unfair but these half-witted responses only fuels more speculation and attention to yourself and makes the story drag on. I hope that at least he admitted to his wife and himself the full truth.
norodeocowboy
Shoot, how long did Caitlyn stay frozen inside her little unreality bubble? People invest themselves in their own webs of lies all the bloody time. The Clintons amass a nine-figure fortune peddling influence to foreign agents, the money taps get turned off the very minute that Trump beats Hillary, and the Clinton machine still won’t get off the narrative that no one really buys into.
Josh447
PS Since Yenni is a proven serial liar via this interview, his word holds zero cred regarding his sexual orientation. In a court of law and public opinion per this case, his actions are his statements. Per his actions vs his words, he is factually deemed a serial lying closeted bisexual.
1EqualityUSA
The diaper wearing, prostitute procuring, spanky David Vitter is from Louisiana. There’s something in the water. Louisiana constituents voted Vitter back in too. Buy bottled water.
norodeocowboy
I think it’s the toxic mold that living indoors in a swamp breeds. Their historical notions of race are even weirder. Sort of a Gothic cross of the Bullwhip and a Brazilian waxing.
Billy Budd
I agree that Brian is weird, conflicted, a self hating individual and an idiot.
1EqualityUSA
Brian is a NOMster. It’s so obvious.
Heywood Jablowme
@1EqualityUSA: But they voted against Vitter for governor – a more powerful position (in Louisiana). So there’s that. Vitter is leaving the Senate at the end of this term.
I have a mixed attitude about Louisiana because it has arguably the coolest gay-friendly city in the US, along with a lot of crazy backward people and alligators. (The alligators are sane, maybe.)
Driving thru rural Louisiana is a lot of fun… but I guess I can say that because I’m white?
norodeocowboy
You can say that because your car didn’t break down.
Nixter
He’s fucked. He has no excuse.
Doughosier
@Brian: Gee, what is more likely? He’s a brace man who just doesn’t want to label himself, or he’s a lying Republican trying to salvage his political future amongst the homophobes?
Doughosier
@Doughosier: Brave not brace…
NateOcean
They always insist they are “straight” until the very day they are caught getting some “under-stall” action in an airport restroom. Or caught in the arms of a blackmailing underaged hooker. Or servicing cöck at the truck stop glory holes.
Ferdinand Adler
He’s a douchebag but I’d really like to model in my underwear for him, sext with him, give him good head and let him f*** my brains out in a mall’s bathroom… Those claiming they’re “no homo” are the kinkiest ones. I love me some closeted Christian Republican like him. So hot.
norodeocowboy
Worked in a Michigan auto plant with one of them. He got caught in an Interstate rest area sting operation. Wife, two kids, lived on a farm that was an hour-and-a-half drive each way. Spent all of his free time re-purposing antique farm equipment into off-the-grid Survivalist machinery. If you squinted, you might could’ve believed he was Matt Damon’s brother, too. A black guy wither whom we worked flashed him when they were in an overhead john, just pulled it out and commenced to lathering up all nine inches. Said the guy turned all kinds of pretty pink, didn’t know where to look, but he didn’t leave, either. The thought of him eagerly exchanging human semaphore among the carefully tended woods along the dog paths just cracked us all up. Straight guy for the queer (third) eye.
Brian
A lot of you are so hypocritical.
You go around excoriating Mike Yenni and yet you applauded that sleazy, slimy occupant of the White House called Bill Clinton. Just goes to show that your opinions are guided by politics and not by principle.
Most of you are low-grade intellects who harbor a venal hatred for anybody that does not abide by your perverted political notions.
While it’s clear that Mike Yenni’s actions were wrong, I hope that he never identifies as gay. Never, never, never…if only just to spite you.
He BGB
Politicians are awful people in general.
Josh447
Human weasels
1EqualityUSA
Brian, Firstly, laugh out loud at the tantrum comment. When you wrote, “…never, never, never” did you rend your baby-fine hair? The GOP are anti-gay. This man’s actions would not be news, were he in a more inclusive party, who were not oppressing fellow citizens with their beliefs. When GOP hypocrite wads, such as Mr. Yenni, get caught foot-patting in a bathroom stall, sexting nubile teens, or feeling up pages, it becomes news.
Brian
@1EqualityUSA: I believe that a Republican will lead the charge for the liberation of MHD (male homosexual desire).
Democrats believe in confining and shrinking MHD into the form known as gay identity. It’s because liberals don’t wish to offend liberal women, the most MHD-phobic demographic of them all.
Jack Meoff
Lord I wish this site was like Survivor so we could vote Brian off the island.
Billy Budd
@Jack Meoff: Brian is insane and he has no insight into his illness. He just doesn’t know.
1EqualityUSA
Choosing between Brian and that self-righteous, pompous, Breithate wad, M0rm0n fake, tedious ‘tard…..at least Brian isn’t sarcastic and r@cist. The lad is merely damaged. (psst…Is Brian real? His persona is too over-the-top. It must be an experiment or some foo’ laughing at us for responding to their fictitious character….or he’s lonely Maggie Gallagher, carbo-loading and spewing her twaddle about our identity.) onthemark says Brian is C@mille P@glia toying with us, which is brilliant in its own way.
norodeocowboy
Ah, Camille Paglia. Finally, a lesbian without a plaid shirt with whom one can share a beer.
seaguy
Typical Republican hypocrite closet case lying through his teeth. So pathetic!
Ken A.
Any normal Joe who texted someone underage would be arrested and have to register as a sex offender. What makes this guy different. Why isn’t he registering as a sex offender?
Josh447
@1EqualityUSA: Ah intelligence is sinking in. 😉
Josh447
@Ken A.: Read the articles on the issue, he’s clean.
SonOfKings
Yes, he’s a liar and a cheat. That much is clear. But, he’s also an extremely unappealing, unattractive, slimy, greasy person inside, outside, upside down, and sideways. Yuck!
humblepie
If I were 17 and a 38 yr old good looking man cared to pay attention to me. I would have been thrilled. And I’m sure I would have been hoping that their was going to be sex or at least some kissing. I wouldn’t have outed him. Don’t know why this young man did that? If his wife is an understanding and intelligent person; she will accept that her husband has a healthy attraction to his same gender. Just accept it and move on. Weather it causes a divorce or they stay together. Will show how accepting and loving his wife is.
norodeocowboy
Ah, grasshopper, how little you know about women. Rule #1. Nothing more outrages them than a man who lies to them. It either reminds them of the Dad who let them down or reminds them of the Dad who never let them down. There’s no amount of groveling that can make the betrayal go away.
Josh447
Yeah it just just wreaks of “I’m not gay but my boy toy is”. At least he’s not denying he’s bi. That would be a tough nutt to swallow, along with his other collage of f××k ups.
Josh447
@humblepie: Right on
Heywood Jablowme
@Ken A.: The age of consent in Louisiana is 17 (for actual sex). So even if they’d HAD sex it would be totally legal. Just sleazy.
norodeocowboy
If any part of the electronic communication was routed across State lines, then the Federal age-of-consent applies. The penalties for such violations can really pile up, two or five or ten years per charge.
Christopher
@1EqualityUSA: I disagree. Your oversimplification of the situation completely ignores the fact that “all politics is local.” Even if he were a Democrat here in south Louisiana, he would most certainly be dealing with the same political fallout that he is now. And, I also can’t agree that all Republicans are automatically anti-gay bc of party affiliation. Yes, the likelihood of that being true is definitely much higher than it should be. Nonetheless, there are many Republicans that are pro-gay and pro-choice, who primarily advocate for smaller government. In fact, the the Republican party is finding that it is at odds with itself bc the young, new members (the millennials) were overwhelmingly supportive of Marriage Equality in recent years. It’s mostly the old, white men in the GOP that are the problem. Fortunately, they will soon be dead and forgotten.
norodeocowboy
Congressman Yenni would make a good gay activist, then. Isn’t that what they’ve been telling everyone for years, that men who molest young boys aren’t actually gay? Right back at ya, troopers!