♪ ♪ you gotta find your people you gotta find your people ♪ ♪ you gotta find your people you gotta find your people ♪ [ cheers and applause ] ♪ this is "nightline." >> juju: tonight, school board sex scandal. shocking details rocking the conservative movement. a florida right-wing power couple's sexual relationship with another woman.

>> they were promoting that the people who know best are the parents in a traditional two-parent, heterosexual household. and here they were acting in a way that didn't conform to that id idea. >> juju: the ultra-conservative mom pushing the so-called don't say gay law. >> who's ready to take back the school boards? >> juju: living a secret life. >> the real problem that is we have a politician who has successfully spent years lying and changing political discourse. >> juju: the push to oust her from her powerful position and why she won't step down. >> there's absolutely nothing to do with my role as a board member. >> juju: plus sara gilbert on life with america's favorite working-class family, the conners. >> was it because of that guy kevin? he was a real weirdo. >> i'm actually married to him now. >> oh, congratulations. yeah, he was great. >> juju: the hit sitcom back for

its sixth season. >> people feel like it's not the perfect family, it's their family. >> juju: one on one with the actress who's played darlene conner since she was 13 and how she says she avoided the dark side of young fame. >> i'm sure i'm crazy in my own ways, right? >> juju: also -- ♪ i wanna hold your hand ♪ >> juju: 60 years ago today, the beatles arriving on u.s. soil, asking america to hold their hands. mr. clean magic eraser powers through tough messes. so it makes it look like i spent hours cleaning, and you know i didn't. it makes my running shoe look like new! it's amazing. it's so good. it makes it look like i have magical powers. magic eraser and sheets make cleaning look easy. ah mornings! cough? congestion? i'm feeling better. all in one and done with new mucinex kickstart. headache? better now. new mucinex kickstart gives all-in-one and done relief with a morning jolt of instant cooling sensation. it's comeback season.

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♪ >> juju: thanks for joining us. one of the founders of "moms for liberty" is under fire, embroiled in a sex scandal. bridget ziegler is a champion of florida's "don't say gay" law. bombshell allegations threaten to derail her career after she and her his admitted to having a sexual relationship with another woman. xander moritz is taking a break from harvard to fight for his hometown school board meeting. the goal, to bring down a controversial conservative activist, bridget ziegler. >> ziegler is no longer an effective politician. this is make or break. >> juju: the people of sarasota, florida, are lining up at this

packed school board meeting. tight security, high drama. >> i will call you forward at the appropriate time. >> you are a threat and a disgrace. >> juju: who is bridget ziegler? once a republican republican star sounding off on fox news. >> i don't want my children to hate america through the anti-america curriculum we continue to see. >> juju: half the dazzling florida gop power couple. she was chair of the state party. now they're embroiled in a sex scandal. christian ziegler accused of sexual assault by a woman the couple admits had previously engaged with them in threesomes. >> we recognize she's a hypocrite. what do your students see? a liar. >> repor >> juju: after smiling through hours of public comments with minimal support -- >> i hope she does not give in, we need her. >> juju: refusing to address the scandal. when you heard about the sex scandal, what went through your mind? >> for me it crystallized the

fact that bridget ziegler is a liar, has made her career focused on eliminating lgbtq discussion and lgbtq+ existence from public schools, all the while engaging in an lgbtq+ relationship. >> juju: that relationship with an unnamed woman who's been friends with the zieglers almost two decades. she told sarasota police she'd been sexually assaulted by christian ziegler. a friend of the accuser called the police for a wellness check. >> tell me exactly what happened. >> so this friend of mine, she told me she was raped yesterday. and that she's scared to leave her house. i'm worried about her right now. >> okay, i have units en route. >> juju: body camera video shows police arriving at the woman's apartment to question her. a court-obtained affidavit says the woman told investigators she was not in a place to consent because it was her day off and she'd been drinking tequila all day. and that she canceled their plans for a threesome whenned bring gel dropped out.

detectives also say christian contacted her via instagram after the alleged assault. in the affidavit, the accuser messaging back to christian, "i'm not okay with what happened the oection other day between us." christian responding, "oh, that's not good." the victim said, "that was not cool, and you didn't bring her and then did that to me." the sex scandal causing an uproar forred bring gel, who had built a nationwide movement by claiming the moral high ground with traditional family values. >> they were promoting a political philosophy based on the idea that the people who know best are the parents in a traditional, two-parent, heterosexual household. and here they were living in their private lives, acting in a way that didn't conform to that idea. >> she's welcome to have threesomes. the real problem that is we have a politician who has successfully spent years lying and changing political discourse, but what she knew the whole time was a lie.

>> juju: bridget helped push florida's parental rights and education law, the so-called "don't say gay" bill. legislation now making its way through 30 other states. and revving up school board politics at this desantis campaign rally. >> who's ready to take back their school boards so that we get rid of the woke and start serving our families? >> juju: bridget is one of the cofounders of "moms for liberty" with funding from right-wing groups like the heritage foundation and the leadership institute, creating a flashpoint in political clashes from book banning to anti-trans bills playing out in school boards across the country. >> bridget swiziegler was one o the most vocal voices in spreading these ideas of book bans and the don't say gay bill. one of the things she was particularly good at was popularizing and making viral moments around these different

policies. >> i know the women who run moms for liberty, fighting very hard to make sure that they're in charge of the direction and upbringing of their children. >> juju: everything changed when bridget's husband was accused of sexual assault last october. bridget admitted to police she had a threesome with the alleged victim only once, but her husband told investigators they'd had a threesome twice at the couple's home and he'd had consensual sex with the other woman approximately a dozen times. it wasn't long before bridget was facing calls to step down. fellow school board member tom edwards says he's watched bridget ziegler turn moms for liberty into a political juggernaut. you've had an adjacent seat to the creation of moms for liberty? >> i watched political activists coming into the school boardroom, and i saw a coordination between mrs. ziegler and what she was saying and what these political activists were saying.

and then i watched the explosion of moms for liberty across the country. and i said, this is a political movement, we're in trouble. and no one listened. until it was too late. >> juju: national political skirmishes are increasingly going local. governor desantis recently targeting 14 school board members across florida for defeat, including tom, whom he called the most woke school board member in america. >> i honestly didn't think there was anything wrong with being "woke." to me, that was being aware. >> juju: how has it affected how divisive your community has become? >> i don't think our community is divided. often people stop me on the street and say, "thank god you're there, by the way, i'm republican and i'm voting for you." and the bulk of us have shared common values and public education and a high-achieving, academic, safe environment for all students is something that we all share. >> juju: the new florida gop chair says school board politics

are part of the republican party playbook. >> moms for liberty is an important group that's moved our agenda forward. so any kind of investigation that bridget and christian are involved in i hope does not distract from their goal, which is moving parental rights forward and helping conservatives win school board races. >> juju: when the scandal hit the state's republican party ousted christian. evan power is his replacement. >> any time you're in one of these positions of leadership, if you get caught in an investigation or something that can impugn your reputation, it ends up hurting the causes you're fighting for. in this case it ended up hurting moms for lint and the republican party, so we're going to try to turn the page on that. >> juju: the alleged sexual assault investigation discovered a video recording of the sexual encounter on christian's cell phone. christian may be charged by the state attorney's office for allegedly filming without the woman's consent.

during a search of ziegler's phone, police say other women's names popped up along with the accuser's titled "the list" on his phone under a subheading with a vulgar expletive. police say they also found messages from three years ago. christian texting his wife that the accuser was an alcoholic, nice person with some issues, i just don't want to feel like we ever take advantage of anyone. his wife texting back, she seems broken or like she's going through some expletive. he replies that they needed to hunt for someone new. while bridget fights to keep her job, police defined to press sexual battery charges against her husband. in a statement to abc news, christian ziegler's lawyer says, while we are disappointed that the sarasota police department punted the decision on the remaining portion of the case to the state attorney's office, we strongly believe that they will not prosecute mr. ziegler for any crime, adding, police closed the rape investigation as the

video definitively proved his innocence. i do not believe he will be ever be arrested or charged with any crime. at the latest school board meeting last night, bridget still defiant, refusing to step down. >> much of the conversation that's come up as public comment i will never address in these chambers. because it has absolutely nothing to do with my role as a board member. >> juju: for the first time draet addressing critics. >> i have taken a lot of arrows. my colleagues up here have as well. it's not comfortable. >> juju: those who want bridget gone say the tide is turning and she should go. >> because of what's been happening during these meetings, across the country moms for liberty chapters are changing their names and erasing any association they had to your hate group. i genuinely mean it when i say it is not too late, it is literally never too late to do the right thing, bridget. please. >> juju: when we come back, american viewers have watched

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♪ >> juju: welcome back. our guest tonight, sara gilbert, shot to fame as the sullen and sarcastic teenager darlene on the classic sitcom "roxanne." darlene is now a 40-something on the revamp of "the conners." thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me, so excited to be here. >> juju: "the conners" is launching its sixth season, it's unbelievable. darlene is married.

is the honeymoon over for her? >> i would say it is a really good relationship, but there is an episode where darlene feels that ben is not listening to her. >> sounds like a marriage. >> sounds like a marriage. "you're not really hearing me." so there's some of that. i would say overall, it's good. they're both busy. darlene started working at the college cafeteria in order to help pay for her son's college, so she's had to put some of her dreams to the side. and ben is working. and so they can have challenges having time to spend together, too. basic marriage issues. >> juju: marriage 101. let's take a look at a clip from this season. >> yeah, you must be a senior copy writer by now? >> no, i left the agency. >> oh, i'm sorry. was it because of that guy, kevin? he was a real weirdo. >> i'm actually heart to him now. >> oh. congratulations. yeah, he was great. >> juju: yeah, he was great.

you always crack me up. you mention some of those themes that touch on, how do i pay for things? how does the working-class issues play into it? you earned two emmy nominations with "roseanne," struck a chord then, striking a chord now. why do you think that is? >> well, i think, like you said, representing the working class is definitely a piece of it. people feel like it's not the perfect family, it's their family. and they relate to it, often. i feel the clip you showed, darlene has made this sacrifice, then she runs into somebody who she was a copy editor during the same time. then that person has ended up publishing books. and she's working at this college cafeteria. it brings up this idea of, i'm not good enough, essentially. she's fighting that off and projecting it onto her dad and saying, he feels that way. but i think, you know, things like that, they're relatable. >> juju: totally. that's why i think audiences have stayed with you all this time. awhile back i visited the set.

and leasy goren sen gave me a tour. you're not just a star but ep of the show. how do you juggle those demands? in what way do you think being a star and being an ep gets you a sense of what makes the secret sauce of the cast? >> i feel really lucky to be able to help contribute in whatever ways i can. i'm really lucky that i inherited this incredible thing, fell into it as a kid, now get to enjoy it as an adult. the one thing that's tricky is sometimes you have to shut down the side that's watching it. >> juju: stop being the boss in the scene. >> yeah. or i don't know boss, but stop picking things apart. like do i want to do it like this? what if we did this? and so sometimes that's the challenge is switching between the two. >> juju: we all know roseanne was fired from the show, the revival. it was canceled by abc, our network. why do you think you wanted to keep this cast and this crew

together for the audiences? >> i felt like there were a lot of stories still to tell. i felt that people weren't done seeing this family. >> juju: you mentioned that you fell into this at 13. you've been acting since you were 5. in many ways, show business runs in your family. i didn't realize your grandfather had helped begin "the honeymooners" with jackie gleason. how do you think you avoided some of the dark side of young fame in hollywood? >> i think i always was encouraged by my mom to stay in school and apply myself there. and so i had some balance. i think because it was the family business, i had good examples around me. and -- i don't know, luck of the draw. i'm sure i'm crazy in my own ways, right? >> juju: you were taught how to keep it real. so what's next for you? what else as a producer, as a star, are you looking for? >> i have a show called

perdeeps of pittsburgh" that should be out this year that i'm producing. >> which part of your brain or talents do you like exercising? >> i love acting. i love trying to make things real. trying to make things funny. maybe it's the same with producing. how can we strike a chotd chord? how can we get to the truth or the heart of the matter and affect people? >> juju: that's awesome. i appreciate your stopping by telling us about "the conners." >> thank you so much, thanks for having me. >> juju: watch the new season of "the conners" on abc or stream on it hulu. the the show will air episode later this season. coming up, the fab four twisting and shouting their way into american hearts. because you know that just because it fits in the cupholder doesn't make it 'to-go'. and you know how to brake, without breaking everything.

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you want to see who we are as americans? i'm peter dixon and in kenya... we built a hospital that provides maternal care. as a marine... we fought against the taliban and their crimes against women. and in hillary clinton's state department... we took on gender-based violence in the congo. now extremists are banning abortion and contraception right here at home.

so, i'm running for congress to help stop them. for your family... and mine. i approved this message because this is who we are. ♪ >> juju: finally tonight, it was 60 years ago today. the fab four kick-starting beatlemania and the british invasion when they touched down at jfk. >> 3,000 screaming teenagers are at new york's kennedy airport to greet -- you guessed it -- the beatles. >> thousands mobbing the band as they stepped off the plane.

soon after, a record-breaking 73 million americans watching john, paul, george, and ringo play "i wanna hold your hand" on "the ed sullivan hand." ♪ i wanna hold your hand ♪ ♪ i wanna hold your hand ♪ >> juju: the next day, playing their first u.s. concert in washington, d.c. singing "twist and shout." ♪ twist and shout ♪ ♪ twist and shout ♪ ♪ come on come on come on baby now ♪ >> juju: that trip cementing the beatles in american history six decades ago today. what an anniversary. that is "nightline." you can watch all our full episodes on hulu. see you back here same time tomorrow. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america.