It’s Disturbing to Watch Grant Denigrate Overweight Plane Passengers



Mocking and insulting people due to their physical appearance is uncalled for from anyone, but especially from a person vying to represent us in Washington DC. Yet, on social media and during his KTAR/KFYI radio program–the Grant Woods Show–this is exactly what Grant Woods has done.



From Facebook:



In an October 18, 2010 post, Woods insults the Canadian actress and singer Jessica Pare, who played Megan Draper in the AMC series Mad Men.



There is something very ‘Trumpian’ about Grant’s fixation on valuing–or devaluing–people’s worth based on their outward appearance. In fact, it’s not hard to imagine Trump himself hatefully denigrating the man and woman that Grant bullies in the following 2009 video excerpt. Who can forget Trump publicly body-shaming former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado, who gained weight after winning the title in 1996? Machado said Trump called her “Miss Piggy.” https://www.npr.org/2016/09/27/495611105/in-post-debate-interview-trump-again-criticizes-pageant-winners-weight



It is shocking and disturbing to see potential 2020 Democratic Senate candidate Grant Woods disrespecting and demeaning women in these videos.

In the September 10, 2009 video, at first, Grant’s guest is explaining that a man who had recently flown to Las Vegas was denied a seat on the flight home because of his size. The co-host says the issue was also about the weight of the luggage (implying that it was about flight safety).



Woods interrupts his co-host’s story with his own insulting view of the situation.



Transcript:



Grant Woods: No it’s all about his big fat belly over my armrest!



Guest: They asked him, they said, ‘Could you put the armrest down’? And he goes, yeah I do it all the time. And they said, ‘Well you’re not taking this flight.



Grant Woods: Hey, let me give you a clue on that. One time I flew to, I had to go to Israel for Mccain and we were fling EL AL airlines and they had more seats on that damn plane, it was packed. Every seat taken and we were in the back. But I’m in the back there’s four in the row and I’m in the aisle and there’s the empty seat next to me there like they’re closed. They are shut down and all my buddies who were in other seats are like ‘Are you kidding me? It’s a long flight, you’ve got an empty seat next to you that pisses me off I can’t believe it!’ and then we look up,… duh duh… duh duh coming down the aisle and it’s a…



Guest: Fat Albert



Grant Woods: Oh from a mile away. It was a woman and she’s from Phoenix.



Guest: Oh Fat Alberta



Grant Woods: And I said, ‘Oh no this can’t be happening.’ She was way up there though, I you know there’s gotta be a seat up there. She keeps coming, keeps coming, keeps coming…



Guest: She probably smelled like cheese.



Grant Woods: Piles in. No, no she smelled fine. She was a very sophisticated woman, she was just fat as hell. And she’s like [Woods continues in mocking tone with nasal voice, impersonating the woman] ‘Uh, Grant and good to see ya.’ [Woods makes sound effect, and motion with hands implying this is the sound of the woman sitting down.] BLBLBLBLggg! [Woods continues talking.] Plops in. Oh shit, this is not good. And I made a huge mistake after we got in the air ‘cuz it was so uncomfortable. She was all over me and us.



Guest: Which you’ve always liked.



Grant Woods: No



Guest: Use her for a pillow.



Grant Woods: She leaned over to talk to the people on the other side and so I pulled the armrest up. It just went, blblllblgfdjsajfsdj, [Woods makes sound effect.] [Woods continues talking.] All of this flab went over like, uh, it covered my leg. I did, I tried to pull it [the armrest] back up. Now it’s like 5 inches under her. Screwed! Never pull it up!

We can not control how our president talks about and treats people, in relation to their weight. But, we can hold the person we choose to be our Democratic Arizona Senate candidate to a higher standard. We should demand that our politicians treat all constituents with respect, and without discrimination. It is not just a matter of political correctness or being polite, weight bias can affect income and the physical and mental health of individuals.

There is something very ‘Trumpian’ about Grant’s fixation on valuing–or devaluing–people’s worth based on their outward appearance.

Watching Grant show contempt towards the plane passengers, makes us wonder what he would say and how he would treat the almost 30% of adult Arizonans who have a BMI (body mass index) of 30 and above. https://stateofobesity.org/states/az/ Why would we choose to elect a man who appears to be prejudiced against almost one third of our residents?



It is shocking and disturbing to see potential 2020 Democratic Senate candidate Grant Woods disrespecting and demeaning women in these videos. Through his hateful attitude, Woods has demonstrated an abundance of cruelty and a glaring lack of character. We deserve better.



We should demand that our politicians treat all constituents with respect, and without discrimination.

For more examples, see our first installment in this series.

Grant’s program didn’t always feature condescension of others, but it often did. On December 20, 2018, we profiled Grant’s recent switch to the Democratic Party, and his attacks on sexual assault victim Mackenzie Phillips.



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