‘Not my words.’ Candidate denounces ‘rape for rape’ policy on his own campaign site

Nevada gubernatorial candidate and former Oregon Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupier Ryan Bundy strongly denied an “eye for an eye” criminal justice policy that appeared on his own campaign website until Tuesday.

“Those are not my words,” Bundy said, according to The Oregonian.

What were those words?

His campaign website said that convicted rapists should be raped as punishment; it said “if you murder 10 people, you will be murdered 10 times before your freedom is returned to you (we can remove the final resuscitation if the prisoner so chooses),” according to reporting from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The language has since been stripped from Bundy’s website, but Nevada Independent reporter Riley Snyder tweeted a screenshot showing the original verbiage.

KQED journalist John Sepulvado, who covered the 2016 wildlife refuge occupation for Oregon Public Broadcasting, called on Bundy to clarify his remarks.

Bundy blamed the wording on his campaign manager and website developer, Cardiff Gerhardt, saying that “the problem is he’s putting a few things in there that I haven’t approved,” according to The Oregonian.

Gerhardt admitted writing the campaign platform and said he stood by it, but didn’t clear it with Bundy, The Oregonian reports.

Before launching his independent bid for governor, Bundy became known in 2016, along with his brother Ammon Bundy, by leading an armed takeover of a remote, southeast Oregon federal wildlife refuge. Both Bundys were arrested but later freed after a judge ruled federal prosecutors withheld evidence, according to Nevada Public Radio.

Bundy also joined his father, Cliven Bundy, in a 2014 standoff with federal authorities in Nevada.

“I’m running for governor because I can see there are many atrocities taking place by the government both on the state level and the federal level,” Bundy said, according to Nevada Public Radio.

Bundy says his primary platform is a strong opposition to what he calls federal government overreach.

“The United States — I don’t see as one country. I see the United States as 50 separate, sovereign, individual countries,” Bundy said, according to Nevada Public Radio.

This story was originally published September 19, 2018 at 3:50 PM.