最终，棕榈滩县共和党决定不再支持那位被指控性侵儿童的佛罗里达州候选人。看来，MAGA运动也并非完全不受道德约束。
At long last, the Palm Beach County GOP has finally pulled its support for a Florida candidate accused of sexually abusing a child. It seems the MAGA movement may not be immune to shame.
此前，棕榈滩的共和党人因持续支持迈克·卡鲁索而饱受争议。卡鲁索原本担任该县巡回法庭书记员兼财务主管，今年8月因绑架、猥亵及虐待儿童等罪名被捕。目前他仍坚称自己无罪。佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯将其停职，并称州政府任命他时并不知晓相关指控。
Palm Beach Republicans have been under pressure over their continued association with Mike Caruso, who was serving as the county’s clerk of the circuit court and comptroller before his August arrest on charges including kidnapping, molestation and child abuse. (Caruso has pleaded not guilty to the charges.) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended him from his position and suggested that his administration was unaware of any allegations of misconduct when it appointed Caruso.
周一，棕榈滩共和党发布了一份选民指南，将卡鲁索列为推荐候选人之一。但在德桑蒂斯、民主党州长候选人戴维·乔利以及佛罗里达州共和党主席埃文·鲍尔均对此表示反对后，该名单上的卡鲁索名字随即被删除。
On Monday, the Palm Beach GOP released a voter guide with Caruso as one of its preferred candidates, but his name was removed later in the day after his inclusion on the list was rebuked by DeSantis, Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Jolly and even Evan Power, the head of the Florida Republican Party. In a post on X, the Palm Beach GOP wrote:
棕榈滩共和党在社交平台X上回应称：根据佛罗里达州法律，该指南原本应列出所有共和党候选人；一旦获准移除竞选宪法规定职位的候选人信息，我们便立即照做了。
For the record, our guide originally listed every Republican nominee, as Florida Statute requires. As soon as we were permitted to remove the nominee running for a constitutional office, we did.
然而这一解释难以说明为何该党要发布包含涉嫌性侵儿童者的选民指南。最显而易见的问题是：为何不稍作等待？当前共和党绝不能再出现任何可能使其被视为纵容性犯罪者的事件。值得一提的是，身为棕榈滩居民的唐纳德·特朗普曾在民事案件中被判定性侵罪名成立，而“爱泼斯坦档案”中也多次提及他的名字。特朗普始终否认与已故性犯罪者杰弗里·爱泼斯坦存在不当关系。继续与卡鲁索保持关联只会让选民更加认清共和党在性侵指控处理上的真实态度。
But that justification doesn’t seem to account for why the party felt the need to put out a voter guide that included someone accused of child molestation. The most obvious question: “Why not wait?”Republicans can ill afford any more incidents that portray the party as friendly to sexual abusers. President Donald Trump, a Palm Beach resident himself, has been found liable for sexual abuse in a civil case and is mentioned many times in the Epstein files. (Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in relation to former associate Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.) Continuing to associate with Caruso would only stand to remind voters of the ways the GOP has handled sexual abuse allegations.