Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s far-right superintendent of public instruction, responded to a pornography scandal by suggesting he was the victim of a massive Republican-led conspiracy to remove him from office.
Two members of the state board of education accused Walters of displaying sexually explicit images of women on a TV screen connected to his computer during an executive meeting this past Thursday.
“These board members have a lot to answer for, and so does the governor of the state of Oklahoma. Did he direct these board members to lie about me?” Walters said of Gov. Kevin Stitt, a fellow Republican, during a press conference on Tuesday. “What exactly directives were they given?”
“We have had our name cleared by both [Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services] and the sheriff’s office,” Walters added, though the sheriff’s office leading the investigation says that’s a lie.
“There is nothing scandalous that I was a part of whatsoever,” Walters claimed, before threatening the witnesses and the media outlets reporting on the matter.
The allegations against Walters came from board members Ryan Deatherage and Becky Carson, who attended the meeting in question. Deatherage and Carson were both appointed to the board by Stitt.
On Friday, Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton and Senate Education Chairman Adam Pugh, both Republicans, announced that the Office of Management and Enterprise Services will lead an investigation into the “bizarre and troubling” incident.
“The accounts made public by board members paint a strange, unsettling scene that demands clarity and transparency,” Paxton said. “Senator Pugh and I appreciate the quick action by OMES to help coordinate through this situation to get details on exactly what happened. More transparency is essential before strong conclusions can be drawn.”
Walters’ rise in the GOP has been fueled by his religious extremism and his efforts to manipulate Oklahoma’s public education system into a vehicle for election denialism. All of his moves have come at the expense of public school safety and education in Oklahoma, which ranks 48th in the nation in education, according to U.S. News & World Report.