So in case you don’t know, things are getting ugly with Missouri Republicans:
In January, Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri admitted to an extramarital affair with his former hairdresser. In February, he was indicted on a felony invasion-of-privacy charge. On Tuesday, the state attorney general plunged the governor even more deeply into political and legal jeopardy, saying Mr. Greitens may have committed a felony in using a charity’s donor list for political fund-raising.
Josh Hawley, the Republican attorney general of Missouri, said his office had evidence that Mr. Greitens had illegally obtained a donor list from The Mission Continues, a veterans charity the governor founded.
“He did all of this without the permission of The Mission Continues,” Mr. Hawley said at a news conference in Jefferson City, Mo. “If proven, these acts could amount to the unauthorized taking and use of property.”
But Mr. Hawley stopped short of filing charges against the governor, who is also a Republican, saying that his office does not have jurisdiction to do so. Instead, he referred the matter to Kimberly Gardner, the St. Louis circuit attorney, who could decide to file charges against Mr. Greitens.
Mr. Greitens, who has remained defiant in the face of widespread calls to resign, responded that the allegations were false and suggested that Ms. Gardner, a Democrat, was politically biased against him.
“Fortunately for Josh, he’s better at press conferences than the law,” the governor said in a statement. “Anyone who has set foot in a Missouri courtroom knows these allegations are ridiculous.”
And this fight is getting uglier:
A week after a report from state lawmakers alleging that Greitens, a Republican, had coerced his hairdresser into nonconsensual sexual acts, took photos of her without her consent, and attempted to blackmail her, Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley has announced the findings of a separate investigation into the governor’s veterans charity.
Hawley said his office has discovered evidence that Greitens may have committed a felony offense by using a donor list of his veterans charity, the Mission Continues, to ask for donations leading up to his 2016 campaign for governor. Hawley’s office has not yet filed formal charges.
Now, Greitens has fired back. On Wednesday, the governor filed a temporary restraining order against Hawley, an attempt to stop the AG from investigating him, according to local television station KRCG reporter Ashley Zavala. The argument from Greitens and his lawyers is that because Hawley has already called for the governor’s resignation, he can’t investigate him impartially, and therefore must step down from the case.
Using a charity list for political fundraising is a felony under Missouri law. The statute of limitations is approaching, so Hawley decided to disclose the information to both the St. Louis circuit attorney and the Missouri House committee investigating Greitens, according to St. Louis Post-Dispatch editor Christopher Ave.
And as Esquire has pointed out, there's something more to this GOP cannibalization:
It has to be noted here that both Greitens and Hawley are ambitious young Republicans with an implacable Sauron’s eye for the main chance. It is safe to say that they don’t get along. Hawley has announced his intention to run against incumbent Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, who is considered among the most vulnerable senators her party has. However, there seems to be no question that Hawley’s campaign would be infinitely better off if Greitens were not hanging around the Republican ticket’s neck like a dead raccoon. Hence, it is thought, Hawley is committing GOP-on-GOP crime in order to enhance his own prospects.
In this, Hawley is at the moment on the right side of Republican politics. The push to spare the state and the party the ongoing spectacle that is Eric Greitens’s baroque legal problems is very much a general and bipartisan effort, but the Republicans are the ones who have sharpened their blades to the brightest shine. Right on cue, Missouri Republicans jumped on Hawley’s latest charges with conspicuous glee. From The Springfield News-Leader:
Several hours after Hawley's press conference, House Speaker Todd Richardson, Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr and Majority Floor Leader Rob Vescovo called for Greitens to resign in a joint statement. "At the outset of this process, we said the governor needed to be forthright and accountable for his actions. After thoughtful consideration of the findings in the House committee’s report and today’s news that the Attorney General has evidence to support another felony charge, we believe the governor needs to take responsibility for his actions," the statement said. "Leaders at all levels of government are entrusted with an incredible responsibility to the Missourians we represent. When leaders lose the ability to effectively lead our state, the right thing to do is step aside. In our view, the time has come for the governor to resign."
The leading Senate Republican, Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, also said it was time for Greitens to go. "We have reached a critical turning point in the allegations made against the governor," said Richard. "The decisions made going forward will have a significant effect on the state of Missouri. After speaking with the attorney general today, I believe the governor has no other respectable option than to resign from office."
This has erupted into an ugly intra-party civil war that puts Hawley right in the center of it all:
John Hancock, a former state GOP chair, said Greitens’ presence divides the party as some members have stuck by the governor and others have called for his removal from office.
“It doesn’t appear to me that’s a concern of Eric Greitens,” said Hancock, who has called for Greitens to step down.
“Josh Hawley is simply doing his job, and it is beyond explicable to me how the governor would attack his own attorney general who is simply doing his job.”
Hancock said the sooner Greitens leaves office, the less the conflict will affect the fall election. But Greitens has shown no indications that he plans to leave office willingly.
Neither President Donald Trump's office nor Vice President Mike's Pence office commented on Hawley's announcement. Pence, who has ties to Greitens, helped recruit Hawley into the Senate race, and Trump held a fundraiser for Hawley last month in St. Louis.
Political scientists struggled to think of a precedent for the situation facing Missouri Republicans.
“It is very hard to sort of imagine these circumstances ever really happening. It is just a very strange world,” said Peverill Squire, a political scientist at the University of Missouri.
“But I think Hawley is clearly doing what’s in his political interests given his Senate campaign. And I think he’s also doing what most of the Republicans in Jefferson City want him to do, which is to force the governor from office as soon as possible.”
A growing number of GOP lawmakers have called on Greitens to step down or have voiced support for his impeachment, but Greitens has continued to crisscross the state to appear at GOP events and reach out to the party’s base.
Austin Petersen, one of Hawley’s opponents for the GOP nomination for Senate, echoed the criticism from Greitens legal team, who called on Hawley to drop the probe after he urged Greitens to resign because of unrelated allegations of sexual coercion and physical abuse facing the governor.
“Last week, Hawley inappropriately used his office to score political points by calling the Governor's alleged actions ‘impeachable’ and calling on the Governor to resign. Now he's on a crusade to remove the Governor from office, or he risks his own political future,” Petersen said in a statement.
“Hawley's compromised himself, and now it's very difficult to take the actions of his office at face value. Due process must be allowed to proceed for the Governor, and those attempting to use this as an opportunity to score political points should be ashamed of themselves.”
Democrats have attacked Hawley for not taking action against Greitens sooner regarding allegations that he illegally obtained and used his former charity’s donor list for political fundraising.
They zeroed in on Hawley’s statement that the statute of limitations on the alleged crime is nearing.
"We're glad that Hawley has come out of hiding to acknowledge the existing evidence of criminal behavior of the Governor. However, the sad truth is that this shows gross incompetence on the part of the Attorney General,” said McCaskill campaign spokeswoman Meira Bernstein.
“The evidence in this case has been publicly available since October 2016 — what excuse could Josh Hawley possibly have for failing to pursue an investigation and allowing this evidence to languish for over a year? The only reason the statute of limitations is now a problem in this case is because Hawley was trying to protect his friend and large donor for as long as possible."
The Missouri Democratic Party echoed this criticism.
State Democratic chair Stephen Webber, a Marine Corps veteran, said Hawley had failed to protect veterans by not launching a probe into Greitens' charity sooner. The statute of limitations on the alleged crime runs out April 22.
“Greitens’ crimes being in danger of hitting the statute of limitations can only be explained by the incompetence of Attorney General Hawley, or his decision, until it became untenable, to shield a political ally instead of protecting America's veterans,” Webber said.
To add insult to injury, not only does the negative press about how Hawley has been handling this case, the press on his lackluster fundraising doesn’t exactly bode well for him:
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has outraised Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, her likely GOP challenger, by more than $2 million in the first few months of 2018.
Hawley raised $1.5 million in the first quarter of the year, while McCaskill — one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection this fall — brought in $3.9 million.
Hawley ended March with a total of $2.1 million cash on hand, while McCaskill has $11.5 million in cash reserves.
Hawley is the only Republican Senate candidate so far who has received financial help from both President Trump and Vice President Pence this cycle. Trump held a fundraiser in Missouri with Hawley last month, while Pence’s political action committee has contributed money to Hawley’s campaign.
Hawley’s total contributions were about $1.29 million in addition to more than $200,000 that was transferred from the fundraiser with the president, according to the Kansas City Star.
While the negative press doesn’t help Hawley, we can’t depend on that alone to save McCaskill. At the end of the day, it’s still all about turning out the base and McCaskill knows this:
“If you’re going to win in Missouri as a Democrat, you’re going to have to get the black and the brown vote,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) said, adding that he’s optimistic McCaskill can mend fences with the community. “I think she’ll rise to the occasion and do what needs to be done.”
A few months ago, the discontent some African-American voters have been feeling toward McCaskill bubbled over into public view at a town hall with state Rep. Bruce Franks Jr., a Democrat from St. Louis.
Franks has been calling for McCaskill to spend more time in Missouri’s black communities. Though he said he’ll vote for her in November, he issued a warning: “I’m going to vote for Claire, but Claire is going to have to bring her ass to St. Louis.”
This speaks to the left’s larger frustration with moderate Democrats who they feel don’t represent their best interest. That has some strategists worried that voters who don’t have a progressive Democrat to vote for may just not vote for Democrats at all, letting a Republican win.
Cleaver, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus on Capitol Hill and the former mayor of Kansas City, says he doesn’t think McCaskill will suffer irreparable damage from the frustrations of Franks and other activists, but he agreed she does need to do more in the state’s urban communities.
“Missouri is an interesting place; it’s really a place where you have to show me,” Cleaver said, nodding to the state’s nickname. “It’s the state motto, but politics is real. I think people want to see her.”
Cleaver, a vocal McCaskill supporter, believes that problem is easily fixable. But he and Marsh say this shift isn’t necessarily Missouri Democratic voters moving more to the left; rather, it’s that Missouri’s Democratic activists are more energized and emboldened in 2018 than they have been in years (along with the party’s base in much of the rest of the country).
“I wouldn’t say they’re moving left; I feel they’re more motivated,” Marsh told me. She also pushed back against the idea that McCaskill hasn’t shown up for African-American voters.
“No one in Missouri politics has fought harder for the African-American community than Claire McCaskill,” Marsh said, referencing the senator’s stance on criminal justice reform and mass incarceration, especially following Ferguson. “If you talk to the old guard, they’ll tell you the same. She’s always been a huge supporter and has stuck her neck out there at times when it’s been most difficult.”
McCaskill herself has promised black voters she’ll fight for them in Washington, and vowed to spend “millions and millions” of campaign dollars seeking their vote in November.
Let’s make sure McCaskill has all the resources she needs to turn out the base. Click here to donate and get involved with McCaskill’s re-election campaign.