APPEALING TO THE INCEL BASE:

Laurie Snell, the estranged wife of Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Sean Parnell, testified under oath Monday that Parnell hit her, choked her, called her a "whore" and "piece of s--t" while pinning her down, and slapped one of their children so hard he left fingerprint-shaped welts under the child's shirt, among other abuse. Monday was the first of three days of custody hearings in family court. Snell is seeking primary custody of their three children, ages 8 to 12.

On one occasion, Parnell "tried to choke me out on a couch and I literally had to bite him" to get free, Snell testified. "He was strangling me." He would also scream at her on car trips for reasons she didn't understand, Snell said, including a Thanksgiving trip in 2008 where Parnell pulled over on the highway, briefly forced her out of the car, and yelled at her to "go get an abortion." She said Parnell, a decorated Army veteran, suffers from with post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosed after combat tours in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007.

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