Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, took to name-calling his fellow senators on Friday, labeling one a “slime ball” and the other a “swamp monster.”
Bouchard, who is also running for U.S. House, said Senate Majority Floor Leader Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, was a “flat-out liar.”
Although he didn’t specify what Driskill was allegedly lying about, he posted a graphic of the vote count for a defeated Senate bill (SF-1012) which would have allowed doctors to prescribe any medicine for the treatment of Covid-19 and pharmacists the ability to fill such prescriptions without penalty.
The vote count showed Driskill voted against the bill.
Bouchard said he and Driskill had discussed hydroxychloroquine (a controversial alleged COVID treatment in which Bouchard is a proponent) and that Driskill said doctors in his area would not prescribe the medication for his wife who was ill with the virus.
Bouchard claimed he referred Driskill to a doctor who would treat his wife with the drug.
“She got what most people could NOT get. They got their prescription outside of WY,” Bouchard wrote on Facebook Friday. ” Oggie is playing games with legislation that would advance Covid Early Treatment practices, he needs to Resign!”
He also claimed that Driskill was taking Ivermectin (another controversial COVID drug that also doubles as a horse medication) during the special session and that Driskill got the OK to do so from Sen. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette.
“Real Leaders don’t play games with life matters. But Swamp Monsters do,” Bouchard wrote.
Mudslinging
Driskill told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that Bouchard was twisting the facts in order to drag his “reputation through the mud.”
Driskill explained that around December 2020, his wife was ill with COVID and she was not getting better. During a committee meeting, he mentioned that she was sick.
He said that Bouchard came to him and recommended a Cheyenne doctor who would prescribe “Trump’s cure.”
“The doctor did a tele-health meeting with my wife, which I was not a part of, where he prescribed her medication, which I then picked up at a Walgreens in Spearfish, South Dakota,” Driskill said.
Until Friday, when his wife spoke with Cowboy State Daily and confirmed the medication she received from the doctor (which included hydroxychloroquine), Driskill did not know what medicine she had taken to recover from COVID.
Driskill also noted that he spoke with the Wyoming Board of Health, which told him that doctors in Wyoming could prescribe any medication, on or off-label, that they saw fit and that no doctors have been censured or had privileges revoked in the last decade.
Did Take Ivermectin
Driskill did also confirm that he took one dose of Ivermectin before the special session began and one during the session, but that he didn’t ask Barlow for permission to take it.
“He’s a veterinarian, so I asked him what the side effects would be for a human taking this kind of medicine,” he said. “He works with this kind of stuff all day, so I wanted to know if it would make me go blind or make my liver sick if I took it. But, I went to a number of people about it, not just Dr. Barlow.”
Driskill also noted that while he took two doses of Ivermectin, that was his personal choice and he would not recommend anyone else do so. He is also vaccinated against COVID, he confirmed.
“I’ve got my own faults and there are many, but to have lies and slander that affect your reputation and the way people look at you differently, people will start to think there is something there,” he said.
“This is clearly an attempt to either not get me to run again or damage my reputation enough that I get beaten in the election. It doesn’t have anything to do with vaccines or anything else.”
“Slime Ball”
After Driskill, Bouchard set his sights on Senate Vice President Larry Hicks, R-Baggs.
Although he didn’t provide any examples or explain his accusation, Bouchard accused Hicks of using Senate PAC money to “quiet” him during his primary election.
“It’s not just his actions during the kabuki theater special session. Senate Vice President Larry Hicks tried to use Senate PAC money to quiet me in August of 2020,” Bouchard wrote.
“He couldn’t get off the phone fast enough when I told him I was taking no PAC money for my 2020 race. Larry is a slime ball. He needs to resign! Drain Wyoming’s Swamp!”
Hicks did not immediately respond to Cowboy State Daily’s request for comment on Friday.
Drain The Swamp
April Poley, Bouchard’s congressional campaign spokeswoman, said the senator was just “calling out the swamp” in Wyoming.
“He calls out the swamp. He always has. He always will. The swamp isn’t just in DC. Wyoming has its own swamp in Cheyenne,” she told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
“Staying silent on swamp activity would be equivalent to participating in it. Legislators are expected to turn a blind eye to the hypocrisy of legislative leadership and their committee assignments and progression of any bills they sponsor, depends on that silence.”
She also called Driskill a hypocrite.
“Driskell voted against Bouchard’s bill regarding COVID treatments yet when his wife was on the verge of being hospitalized last year, he was more than happy to take the help of drugs most WY voters so not have access to. Hypocrite,” she said.
