When it comes to sexual impropriety, nobody is more forgiving than GOP voters.
It was barely three years ago when “family values” Republican Eric Greitens resigned as Governor of Missouri after being accused of sexual misconduct and blackmail. Now, he’s the reported frontrunner in his race for U.S. Senate.
In case you forgot, Greitens resigned in 2018 after he was arrested and charged with first-degree felony invasion of privacy when his former hair-dresser-turned-mistress accused him of tying her to a chair in a basement, blindfolding her, spitting in her mouth, ripping open her shirt, taking her picture without consent, forcing her to perform oral sex on him, and then blackmailing her to keep quiet about the whole thing.
Here's Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens mug shot. He was indicted today on felony invasion of privacy charges. pic.twitter.com/04ZpVKuvit
— Mike Colombo (@Mike_Colombo) February 22, 2018
After the scandal broke, Greitens admitted to the affair but denied doing anything illegal then retreated from the spotlight for a while. The charges against him were eventually dropped. Then in March of this year, he mounted a political comeback by announcing his plans to replace retiring Sen. Roy Blunt in 2022.
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Since then, he has been traveling all across the state trying to win over conservative voters by convincing them that the whole sex scandal he was wrapped up in a few years back was really NBD and they should totally elect him to represent them in the U.S. Senate because God forgives and blah, blah, blah.
And, apparently, it’s working!
According to emissourian.com, Greitens, who believes discrimination protections for LGBTQ people threaten jobs and gender neutral bathrooms will result in “grown men [going] into little girls’ bathrooms”, is fast becoming the front runner in his race.
Not only that, but several high-profile conservatives have slithered out from the sewer to endorse him, including the esteemed Rudy Giuliani and ex-convicted felon (pardoned by Donald Trump) Bernie Kerik, as well as conservative media personalities Mark Cox and Jamie Allman.
He’s also employed Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, to be his national campaign chair. And he has the support of billionaire Richard Uihlein, who just donated $2.5 million to a newly formed pro-Greitens super PAC.
Oh, and he’s been cozying up with accused mail fraudster and money launderer (also pardoned by Trump) Steve Bannon.
Like so many Republicans these days (i.e. Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley), Greitens appears to be casting himself as Trump 2.0. But he’s doing a better, not to mention sneakier, job at it. In addition to artfully aligning himself with some the sleaziest players within the GOP, he’s making voters forget about the not-so-Christian lifestyle he leads and the fact that, oh yeah, he’s got a mugshot.
Keep a very close eye on this one, folx.
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
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marion
It is not appropriate for Graeme to write an article on sexual misconduct, given the past allegations made against him.
Matthewnow
Why not. He above all others knows about sexual conduct.
Chrisk
You really have it out for Graham. You sound like an immature douche though.
Man About Town
You expect to be taken seriously when you can’t even spell his name right?
GayEGO
So typical of a GOP as Eric Greitens cheats with sexual misconduct. Cheat is a very descriptive word for a lot of GOPs, Trump is a big cheater.
okiloki
How were charges against him dropped when they had photographic evidence of him kidnapping and rapping a woman? Sadly a lot of GOP voters seem to think rape is not a big deal if the perpetrator is a White male. Also doesn’t Kimberly guilfoyle also have her own sexual assault/harassment allegations? Shameless.
TomG
Did you expect anything else from a repukelican? I didn’t.
Fahd
Maybe the democrats can take a senate seat here. Todd Aiken the Missouri Senate candidate who talked about “legitimate rape” and whose campaign manager was Kellyanne Conway lost his race. Seems like history repeating itself with an actual rapist this time. Things can’t have gone that far downhill that quickly or is the democratic party too inept to take advantage of this opportunity?
Kevan1
I guess I am behind. I thought you could not run for office with a felony. I guess he wasn’t. There should be some rules about running for office after you have had a criminal record. A misdemeanor is a different thing. So tired of criminals in office.
Essie
Charges were dropped so he was never tried so he is not a felon. I guess.
I also thought a felon couldn’t vote or run for political office but that can’t be true since there are so many crooks running this country.
barryaksarben
This violent sex offender (alledgedly) telling others they are perverted is typical republican bull. I do hope to hell this asshole doesnt get elected
Prax07
Typical GOP Scumbag. They’re the trailer trash of politics, so this guy shouldn’t surprise anyone.
JRamonMc
Hate to say this, but if every politician both republican and democrat that’s committed an egregious aggressive sexual act against a woman, man or child was eliminated from holding an office, we’d have next to no one holding an office today. Sad state of affairs that’s what our government has come to.
gorpalm
Not true – That’s the kind of “They’re just as bad as each other” rhetoric that screwed over the 2016 election (and subsequently the country) as middle of the road folks actually had been convinced it should be a difficult choice. They’re objectively NOT as bad as each other. Sure you might have jaywalked or played fast and loose with your expenses once, but I’m hoping you haven’t sexually blackmailed your mistress recently in this example, or citing other examples embrace kiddyporn, or have sexually trafficked anybody, and the list goes on and on and On…
greekboy
Typical repuglicant. Bet he’s a mo…a great big one
Mack
I read an article somewhere that Trump was upset because Guilfoyle supported Greiten. He supports the one running against him on the Republican ticket.
BoomerMyles
I read that article too.
Guilfoyle is now on his bad side.
Prax07
Guidoyle just needs to let Donnie grab her by her rancid cooch and she’ll be back in his good graces. That or pee on him.
M K
Not that I condone his actions and while he probably actually did all/some of the acts he was charged with, in the end, since the charges were dropped it’s like he didn’t and doesn’t have a record so can’t really hold that against him… need to find actual proved behaviors and beliefs.
James
Duh. Are you really that dumb.
cuteguy
Remember this is the party that supports their leader grabbing women by their pu**y. The GQP is a modern day Nazi party
James
Missouri sounds like a sh*t hole.
WayDifferent
You liberal phags want this real man so bad it’s draining all your energy commenting here about it.
gorpalm
Imagine for five minutes you’re living in a country that in the main has a functioning moral compass. Where disgraced former politicians aren’t championed and enthusiastically financed by anybody, but left to rot in obscurity or jail or preferably both.
Some things should not be up for debate – The fact that we’re discussing this miserable PoS as a legitimate, frontrunning contender for major political office shouldn’t be weird or eyerolling, it should be Alarming. It should be Terrifying. It should be telling you that the Country is breaking, and the last time I looked Missouri is still in the United States, so yes, it’s not “over there, over the hills”, but “right Here, right in your living room”. This kind of leadership collectively never ends well for the candidates, and usually drags thousands if not millions of people down with them.
LAShibaDad
This guy is repulsive. But you might want to at least get your facts straight. Greitens is Jewish (which as a Jew, makes me think he is a total embarrassment).
Kangol2
One thing that’s often left out of accounts about Greitens is that Missouri Republicans–who are very right-wing outside of St. Louis and Kansas City–basically found that Greitens’s campaign also had engaged in corruption.
From the 24/7 Wall St website via MSN News: “Greitens simultaneously faced campaign finance probes over allegations that he used a veterans charity donor list to fundraise from and that he had dark money groups funding his push for governor. His campaign was fined $178,000 by the Missouri Ethics Commission, which said it did not find Greitens personally knew about the dark money.”
This man is so sleazy he makes sleaze itself embarrassed. He’s running against a field of right-wing Republican crackpots, including gun-toter Mark McCloskey, so whoever emerges will be one of truly out-there Republicans running in the next election cycle.
ffmikey
If you read about the sexual encounter it certainly sounds like some S&M encounters engaged in by some of those in the Gay Community. Perhaps it went beyond what his so called victim expected by we hear that also many times. The charges were dropped so it appears to be consensual.
ffmikey
I guess all of you left wing nut jobs believe a sexual encounter that hinged on S&M against a adult female is far more egregious than our dear demented president constantly inappropriately touching young pre-teen girls in numerous photo ops he and their families take part in.