Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens tried to mount a preventive defense before a damning report from the Missouri legislature was released, but the scandal is far too serious for him to survive. The frightening details of the report are below, but it is so damaging that even top Missouri Republicans have had enough. Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, Sen. Claire McCaskill’s opponent, finally saw the light after sheepishly defending the governor for months. From the Kansas City Star:
Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley, a leading candidate for U.S. Senate, is calling on his state’s GOP governor to “resign immediately.”
While many Missouri Republicans are calling for Greitens to resign, few have gone as far as Hawley and flatly called the details of the report "impeachable."
Republican Congresswoman Ann Wagner called Greitens “unfit to lead our state.”
Rep. Vicky Hartzler said the detail of the allegations "surpasses disturbing" and is "disgusting.” She couldn’t quite bring herself to call for his resignation, but the writing is on the wall, even for the most die-hard, head-in-the-sand, “family values” Republicans.
Sen. Claire McCaskill stated plainly it was time for Greitens to resign.
There is at least one other Missouri Republican who is putting his ‘family values’ on display today by *not* calling on Governor Greitens to resign. Apparently, boys will be boys.
To see exactly why the governor needs to leave the governor’s mansion today, right now, this minute, see the details of the allegations below. Proceed with caution, this is disturbing.
After Greitens coaxed the woman to his house to talk (with his wife out of town), begging her to meet him there because he was running for office and couldn’t be seen with her in public, he coerced her into changing into an outfit he picked out, telling her to go with him to the basement to work out. Within minutes the woman found herself being tied up and gagged by Eric Greitens. From the Kansas City Star:
22. Upon entering the basement, Witness I testified that Greitens taped her hands to pull-up rings with "this gauzed tape stuff' and then put a blindfold on her. Witness 1 testified that these items were laying on a "workout bench right there, and that's where he had that stuff." (Footnote 25)
23. Witness I testified to Greitens' demeanor at the time, stating, "[H]e kind of had this controlling sort of- again, it almost as if he had a- like we were on a movie set. So he's got this whole thing down of what he was going to say or whatever, but he was super - he was in a controlled state, which at this point was intriguing to me." (Footnote 26)
24. Witness I testified that Greitens then spit water into her mouth:
And then he said, First, before we start a workout, you have to be hydrated and puts water in his mouth and tries to spit it in my mouth, at which point I realized he's trying to kiss me, but I don't even want to kiss him ....
So I just spit it out. He does it and he's like, You're not going to be a bad girl, are you? Tries to do it again, to which I just let it dribble out, because I didn't even want to kiss him. (Footnote 27)
25. Witness I testified that she had not spoken to that point, and that Greitens then, "[S]tarts kissing down my neck and he staiis kissing kind of like down to my chest. And he takes the shirt and rips it open." (Footnote 28)
26. Witness I testified that she did not consent to Greitens' tearing of the shirt, exposing her. (Footnote 29)
27. Witness I testified that Greitens then commented on a scar on Witness l's stomach, before "kissing down [her] stomach" and "pull[ing] down [her] pants." (Footnote 30)
28. Witness I testified she did not consent to Greitens pulling her pants down to her ankles. (Footnote 31)
29. After Greitens pulled down her pants, Witness I testified, "[T]hen I hear him kind of, 1 ike, step back - take a step back and I hear - I can hear like a, like a cell phone - like a picture, and I can see a flash through the blindfold." (Footnote 32)
30. Witness I testified that she felt like her "privacy was invaded."
The woman went on to describe how upset and scared she was by the whole encounter and that Greitens continued, forcing her to give him oral sex, which she did while crying uncontrollably.
I'm bawling my eyes out. Yeah, so I'm still crying. And then he's like - I can tell he's still, like, in it -he's still in this -in this thing that he's got in his mind of whatever he's doing, and he's still like messing with me.
He starts undoing his pants, and he takes his penis out and puts it, like, near where my face is. And I'm like -so this guy literally just wants me for this, and this is all he wants, and then he'll let me -because at this point, too, I also know I have to be at work, and he's not going to let me leave, because he's obviously still horny. So I gave him oral sex at this point. (Footnote 45)
42. Witness I further testified that Greitens pulled his pants down and "pulled his penis out.. . max, six inches or something" from her face while she was still crying and felt that she had no other choice if she were going to get out of the basement. (Footnote 46)
The woman said she was confused and angry and that Greitens continued pursuing her over several months and she reluctantly saw him several times after that, until he started hitting her.
H]e was communicating with her through a TracPhone, and that she had went there. His wife was out of town, that she had -he had asked if she had any sort of sexual relationship with anybody since they had been together last. She stated that she had had sex with her husband- her husband at the time, and that that had made him angry, and that he had slapped her in the face and called her a whore. (Footnote 93)
60. Witness I testified that she spoke with Greitens a few times over the next week via a burner phone that he had purchased, and then "saw him one more time, which was in the morning before work." Greitens asked if she wanted to come over to workout. Witness I testified:
[W]e did exercise and went through, like, a workout, and then at the end of it, then it turned sexual in nature. And at first it was fine, and then we were in a position that would have been as if we were having sex, like doggy style, but we didn't ever have intercourse throughout all of the times that I saw him. So he was essentially, like fingering me and - but in that position, and out of nowhere, just, like, kind of smacked me and grabbed me and shoved me down on the ground.
And I instantly just started bawling and was just like, What is wrong with you? What is wrong with you? And !just laid there crying while he was just like ... you're fine, you're fine. You know, not really- I think he was just - I don't know. Maybe that's normal, but, to me, it's not. So, after that, I got ready and left and went to work. (Footnote 94)
61. Witness 1 testified that this incident "might have actually left a mark":
She went on to describe why she continued seeing him after the first assault.
I've asked myself that so many times. I think it comes down to a few things. One, I felt really disgusted with myself that I allowed that first time to happen. Really embarrassed that he thought of me as a whore. And so after my- I told my husband and he was clear that he did not want anything to do with me, that he wanted to move into an apartment, and when Eric came back in and he was normal and so kind to me, that felt so much better and it allowed me to just ignore any of those bad feelings about myself, in particular. Because if I thought he was this horrible person, I really felt shameful of myself.
And so, I think I just wanted to feel better about it. I didn't want to think that he thought of me as just a whore. I wanted to think that he actually really liked me and wanted to have a relationship with me of sorts. (Footnote 100)
How is this man still in office? If there isn’t a moving van at the governor’s mansion by lunch today, Missouri’s Republican-dominated legislature should be moving toward impeachment before dinner is on the table.