No, this is not a joke, friends.
Cockburn took to Twitter over the weekend and shared a sketch, apparently taken from Republican candidate Denver Riggleman's Instagram page, that showed Bigfoot with a censor bar over his genitals.
— Leslie Cockburn (@LeslieCockburn) July 29, 2018
"My opponent Denver Riggleman, running mate of Corey Stewart, was caught on camera campaigning with a white supremacist. Now he has been exposed as a devotee of Bigfoot erotica," Cockburn wrote in a tweet. "This is not what we need on Capitol Hill."
In a follow-up tweet, the 65-year-old candidate shared a second image from Riggleman's personal account that showed a similar Bigfoot drawing, but with his face superimposed over the mythical woodsman's.
— Leslie Cockburn (@LeslieCockburn) July 29, 2018
"From my opponent Denver Riggleman's Bigfoot erotica collection," Cockburn wrote as her caption for the second image.
Cockburn is facing off against Riggleman on the November ballot for Virginia's 5th Congressional District.
This latest incident follows Cockburn's June remarks that criticized Riggleman for campaigning alongside Senate Republican candidate Corey Stewart, who has been accused of courting white nationalists. During a June segment on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time," Stewart told host Chris Cuomo that he had accepted the endorsements of Paul Nehlen, a Wisconsin Congressional candidate who has frequently made anti-Semitic remarks, and Richard Hines, a prominent defender of the Confederacy, but stressed that those endorsements don't reflect his personal views.
"I take support from whoever wants to give it to me," Stewart said. "That does not mean I support their views. I do not want to have anything to do with anyone who is racist and bigoted or anti-Semitic."
Despite Cockburn's assertion that Riggleman has an erotic obsession with Bigfoot, Riggleman told the The Daily Beast on Monday that the images were actually part of an ongoing joke between him and his friends from the military. The joke itself stems from a book Riggleman is writing that focuses on the public fascination with Bigfoot.
"For me, the book really is an anthropological study on all the people who believe in Bigfoot and the different Bigfoot belief systems out there. That's it," Riggleman told the outlet. "This is a real subculture in the United States, and it's hundreds of thousands of people that believe."
A real subculture, indeed. Back in 2014, Buzzfeed writer Katie Heaney offered some insight on the matter with her list of monster erotica that focused on Bigfoot. The collection included Raven Blackbird's "Bigfoot Did Me From Behind and I Liked it," Ann Probe's "Boffing Bigfoot" and Virginia Wade's "Cum for Bigfoot."
Riggleman's book will be titled, "Mating Habits of Bigfoot and Why Women Want Him." And, no, he's not planning on changing the name.
"I'm not gonna change the title," he stressed. "Absolutely not. It's funny. I love it."
It should also be noted that this isn't Riggleman's first rodeo in the Bigfoot scene — he co-wrote an Amazon short on the topic with former ESPN writer Don Barone 12 years ago. The work was dubbed, "Bigfoot Exterminators Inc: The Partially Cautionary, Mostly True Tale of Monster Hunt 2006."
Indicating he didn't want to "alienate Bigfoot voters in the 5th District," Riggleman said that Cockburn's decision to call his work "Bigfoot erotica" might've been overkill.
Needless to say, netizens haven't been able to contain themselves.
— Rick G. Rosner (@dumbassgenius) July 30, 2018
— Alazar Moges (@zarzarbinkss) July 30, 2018
— Chuck Tingle (@ChuckTingle) July 30, 2018
— Robyn Pennacchia (@RobynElyse) July 30, 2018
— Royce Christyn (@ChristynRoyce) July 30, 2018
