Rantz: Council member faces ethics complaint for trans ordinance, called ‘Nazi’ in unhinged voice mail

Spokane City Council member Jonathan Bingle introduced amendments to an ordinance that would have protected women and children from gender extremists. Now, he faces an ethics complaint from a constituent he says left unhinged voicemails calling him a “Nazi.”

Rowan Pugh, a constituent, filed the complaint against Bingle, claiming the Republican councilmember violated the city’s Code of Ethics “by attempting to pass laws to discriminate against trans and other gender diverse people.”

Bingle’s amendments barred city dollars from being used for puberty blockers, protected a parents’ right to know about gender-related issues around their kids, would keep men from women’s bathrooms, and bar transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

Here’s what allegedly happened on the call

The angry constituent claimed during a phone conversation with Bingle to discuss the issue, the councilmember was rude and talked over him. Bingle, in an interview with “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH that no such thing happened.

“This person just was a little bit belligerent, and I said, ‘Hey, I would love to have a conversation with you, you know, if we could actually, you know, have one,'” Bingle recalled. “And they basically started saying, ‘Shut the ‘f’ up.’ And I was like, ‘You know what, I actually don’t have to talk to you if that’s what’s going to happen.’ And so then I chose to end the phone call.”

Bingle said the call left him frustrated because “I was trying to have a conversation” with a constituent, and he’s always happy to “talk to every single person, especially if I represent you.” He said, despite a good-faith effort to discuss the issue, Pugh wasn’t interested.

The call wasn’t recorded, making it impossible to know who is more accurately depicting the call. But Bingle provided “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH with two voice mails he said Pugh left following the tense phone call. It suggests Pugh might have been the rude one in the call.

Unhinged voicemails

Bingle says Pugh left two unhinged voice mails on his phone. He shared the audio with “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

“Hey, uhm, that’s pretty rude to hang up. Maybe if you’re going to pass discriminatory against people, you should be prepared for the smoke that comes your way. If you don’t have a well-thought out opinion about this and you don’t know what the f***ing talking about, you shouldn’t be passing laws against it you f***ing Nazi b***h. You understand that,” according to the voice leaving the message.

On a second voicemail, Bingle says Pugh called him a “giant f*****g p***y,” followed by a lewd sexual reference.

A history of this kind of behavior?

Pugh did not respond to a request for comment.

According to what appears to be her Threads account, she’s harassed Spokane congressmember Michael Baumgartner, too.

“Just got a call from the Capitol Police because I told that cowardly Nazi, Michael Baumgartner to off himself,” Pugh wrote. In another post, Pugh said that it would be “dope” if Attorney General Pam Bondi killed herself on live television.

Pugh also posted screenshots of abusive, harassing messages she allegedly sent to Bingle. She also encouraged people to harass Bingle and Republican councilmember Michael Cathcart.

“Don’t forget to call your city council members, Michael Cathcart and Jonathan Bingle, tomorrow to harass them about the LGBTQ+ sanctuary laws they voted against and the anti-trans laws they tried to pass,” she wrote.

Why does this matter?

Bingle, quite obviously, did not violate any city policy. So why does this ethics complaint matter?

“As you know, we’ve seen some judicial activism recently, and so I’m not entirely sure (this will be rejected), but I believe that I’m fully protected within the scope of my job, that this will be fine. I’ve never received an ethics complaint before,” Bingle explained.

He said it’s sad that “for whatever reason, people see disagreement as discrimination, and I think it’s incredibly important for people to understand that disagreement is not discrimination. And that if we can’t have an honest conversation about serious public policy, then we actually don’t have a democracy. We have a dogma.”

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