'He's not Trump': GOP activists say Ziegler's defiance won't save job amid rape accusation

Embattled Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler is showing no signs that he will heed party leaders' calls for him to resign in the wake of sexual assault allegations, testing whether the party will follow through on threats to remove him.

Ziegler has invoked former President Donald Trump − viewed by many Republicans as an unjustly persecuted figure − when confronted about resigning and is emulating his defiant stance in the face of legal troubles, but Florida GOP activists say they view the accusations against the two men very differently.

The Republican Party of Florida's executive board is scheduled to meet on Sunday to discuss Ziegler's fate. Florida GOP leaders say the votes are there to end Ziegler's tenure as chair.

“The writing's on the wall: if he doesn’t resign, he’s going to be removed," Pinellas County GOP Chair Adam Ross said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, Attorney General Ashley Moody and a variety of other GOP leaders in Florida have called on Ziegler to resign after it was revealed Sarasota police are investigating a rape allegation against him. Ziegler says the sexual encounter was consensual.

Ziegler and his wife, Sarasota County School Board member and Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, had a three-way sexual encounter more than a year ago with the woman who later accused Christian Ziegler of sexual assault after he came to her home on Oct. 2, according to a search warrant affidavit.

Despite the forces lined up against him, Ziegler hasn't shown any indication he will back down. He sent an email shortly after the rape allegation became public, saying: "We have a country to save and I am not going to let false allegations of a crime put that mission on the bench as I wait for this process to wrap up."

No sign of resignation from Christian Ziegler

Party leaders say they haven't heard from Ziegler in recent days and don't believe he plans to resign.

"He hasn’t come out and said he’s going to do the honorable thing, so we’re just anticipating he’s going to push back on it," said Lee County GOP Chair Michael Thompson, adding: "It don't look like he's going to go away quiet."

Thompson spoke to Ziegler a few days after the rape allegation came out to inform him he would seek his resignation. He said Ziegler invoked Trump to oppose the effort to remove him.

“He mentioned Trump," said Thompson, who sits on the Florida GOP executive board. "When I asked him to resign he said, 'Do you feel the same way about the president?' I’m like, 'what do you mean?' And he’s like, 'he’s being accused of this and that.' I told him ... the voters get to hold (Trump) accountable. The (Republican Party of Florida) holds you accountable.”

Trump faces mounting legal troubles, including a $5 million jury verdict in May that found him liable for sexually abusing advice columnist Jean Carroll in 1996.

The former president has been defiant, admitting no wrongdoing as he works to win back his old job. Thompson believes Ziegler is taking a similar approach. "He told me he was going to keep his head down, barrel through it and come out on top," he said.

Party members making distinction between Trump and Ziegler

Yet while Florida Republicans largely have rallied around Trump, they have been quick to distance themselves from Ziegler and say the circumstances the two men face are much different. (Trump hasn't commented on Ziegler's situation.)

“Completely different facts and scenarios," Ross said. "Just on the face of it all it’s completely different. Donald Trump has every right to run for president. Voters will decide."

The voters Ziegler is accountable to are Republican Party of Florida activists who elected him in February. And Ross said they're ready to ditch him. “He doesn’t have the votes," Ross said.

If Ziegler thinks he can play a Trump card and try to position himself as a persecuted figure, he's mistaken, said the Rev. John Vacchiano, the chair of the Indian River County GOP and a member of the Republican Party of Florida's executive board.

“I think the situations are pretty different," Vacchiano said. "The main difference ... is that Christian was elected by the state committee people. He’s in essence accountable to the state committee and the executive board.

"President Trump’s allegations were brought about prior, of course, to him being elected and that was all out front, if you wanted to continue voting for President Trump you knew it going into it. … President Trump was elected by the people."

Ziegler also doesn't have the ability to sway public opinion within the GOP base that Trump does, Thompson noted.

“He’s not Trump," Thompson said, adding that "these people aren’t remotely close. They’re two different people. President Trump commands the room when he walks in, Christian Ziegler doesn’t command that type of respect. … Every head doesn’t turn. It’s totally different.”

Issue of 'respect' for Ziegler

Trump “gets a lot more of a pass on this just due to the fact the Democrats have been attacking him on every issue they can come up with under the sun," added Thompson, who said "people don’t believe in Christian the way they do President Trump.”

The Trump card may only work for Trump.

“It’s like the Teflon Don vs. rookie Chris," Thompson said. "President Trump’s been doing this for a long, long time.”

Ziegler may be trying to hold onto his position until Sarasota police finish their investigation in the hopes that no charges are filed against him, thinking that will help him make the case for keeping his job.

Yet Thompson and others say that they're determined to remove him, regardless of whether he faces criminal charges, based on the revelations in police documents about his sexual activity.

“The immorality of it all was the main issue," Vacchiano said.

Ziegler has few public defenders, but there are some GOP activists who believe there has been a rush to judgment among those trying to oust him. Conni Brunni, who lost a race for Sarasota County GOP chair last year, said Ziegler should stay on as state party chair if he's not charged with a crime.

"Why should he be removed? Are you kidding me," Brunni said, adding that everything else that has come out about the Zieglers' sexual activities is "all consenting adults, it's none of my business."

She added: “There have been a lot worse scandals for people and they survive them and move on."

There are 40 members of the Florida GOP's executive board. A simple majority is needed for a resolution to pass.

In an email to executive board members last week, Florida GOP Vice Chair Evan Power laid out some of the actions that might be taken against Ziegler. They include: "appointing a special investigative committee" to weigh whether Ziegler's removal is warranted and establishing a "date certain for the Executive Board to hear evidence and consider discipline including but not limited to removal from office or expulsion from the party."

The board also could suspend Ziegler's authority during a committee investigation and considering a "vote of no confidence and formal censure."

GOP leaders are still considering the party rules governing the removal of a chair, and it’s not clear what will happen Sunday, but there also is a possibility that a vote to remove Ziegler outright could occur.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Christian Ziegler invokes Donald Trump as he seeks to save job