I'LL '3' MY WAY OUT
California Rep. Katie Hill, under fire for engaging in a “throuple” relationship with a former female campaign staffer and her now-estranged husband, announced Sunday that she’s resigning.
“It is with a broken heart that today I announce my resignation from Congress,” Hill wrote in a statement she shared on Twitter.
“This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but I believe it is the best thing for my constituents, my community, and our country.”
Her spokeswoman said Hill hasn’t decided when the resignation will be effective, but Politico reported it could be by the end of the week.
The freshman lawmaker has also been the target of a House Ethics Committee investigation over allegations that she was romantically involved with her current legislative director, Graham Kelly.
Hill, 32, had vehemently denied being involved with Kelly — which would be a violation of House rules — but did admit to a sexual relationship with former campaign staffer Morgan Desjardins, 24, while married to her now-estranged husband, Kenny Heslep.
The openly bisexual Democrat told the National Review last week that she became involved with the campaign worker during the “final tumultuous years” of what she called an abusive marriage.
“I know that even a consensual relationship with a subordinate is inappropriate, but I still allowed it to happen despite my better judgment,” Hill said in a statement.
The pair’s relationship was first reported two weeks ago by the conservative news outlet RedState, which backed up its claims by publishing a number of steamy photographs of Hill and her subordinate.
One photo showed the two embracing and locked in a kiss. Another posted by the site showed a nude Hill brushing Desjardins’ hair.
Heslep apparently had no problem with his wife’s affair with Desjardins because he was a willing participant, according to reports.
In her resignation statement, Hill blasted Heslep and “hateful political operatives” for perpetrating what she called a “smear campaign built around cyber exploitation.”
“Having private photos of personal moments weaponized against me has been an appalling invasion of my privacy,” she said. “It’s also illegal, and we are currently pursuing all of our available legal options.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a fellow Californian, on Sunday night reacted to Hill’s departure in a statement, saying the young lawmaker “has acknowledged errors in judgment that made her continued service as a Member untenable.”
“Congresswoman Katie Hill came to Congress with a powerful commitment to her community and a bright vision for the future, and has made a great contribution as a leader of the Freshman Class,” Pelosi said.
CONGRESSWOMAN Katie Hill’s sexual relationship with a much younger intern is a classic “Me Too” situation, and on Sunday, she belatedly realized the gravity of her offense and now plans to resign.
But it shouldn’t have taken so long — more than a week during which she was aggressively defended by hypocritical defenders on the left.
By claiming that Hill was the victim of a political smear, she and her supporters showed no concern for the vulnerable 22year-old who was preyed upon by her boss and who now, two years later, is bereft, abandoned and a self-described “mess.”
The same people who demonize males for far less gave Hill a free pass for her egregious abuse of power.
The Guardian even helpfully has explained the ethical distinction between men and women committing the same offense: “When Hill engaged in an affair with a campaign aide, she did not do so in the context of millennia of men’s sexual violence against women.”
Seriously? This despicable sophistry undermines everything the “Me Too” movement is meant to be about.
It shouldn’t need to be said but in a world with so many moral compasses gone awry, it seems necessary to point out that when a member of Congress has a sexual relationship with a staffer, particularly one who is a decade younger and fresh out of college, that is an abuse of power.
To spell it out, if your boss is having sex with you, something is wrong. The power imbalance undermines the notion of consent, regardless of the gender or sexuality of the more powerful person.
The House Ethics Committee is investigating Hill’s behavior, including allegations of another affair with a male staffer, which she denies, to see if it violates congressional rules.
But whether it is or isn’t technically a violation, it’s still wrong by any standard of basic human decency. And you can bet that if Hill, 32, were a man and, God forbid, a Republican, the “Me Too” crowd would show no mercy.
No man could get away with describing a sexual relationship with a subordinate whose paycheck he controls as merely “inappropriate.”
Hill, described by Elle Magazine as “one of the most powerful” freshmen in Congress, and a protégé of her California stablemate Nancy Pelosi, wielded power every bit as potent as any man.
What makes this situation worse is that she prevailed upon her susceptible young staffer Morgan Desjardins (with Hill above, at left) to enter an emotionally perilous “throuple” relationship, or sexual threesome, which included Hill’s husband, Kenny Heslep.
After a week of bombshell revelations, taken from divorce documents filed in July by Heslep and published by the conservative blog Red State, Hill sent a letter blaming everyone but herself to her Californian constituents — who must be thrilled at the antics conducted in their name.
“I am going through a divorce from an abusive husband who seems determined to try to humiliate me,” she wrote. “I am disgusted that my opponents would seek to exploit such a private matter for political gain . . . I, like many women who have faced attacks like this before, am stronger than those who want me to be afraid.”
Sorry, but when you conduct your private life in such an exploitative and hypocritical fashion, you don’t get to play the victim feminism card.
It’s no surprise to learn the throupling ended in tears. That much is clear from even a cursory glance at texts among the threesome published by the Daily Mail in an exposé that included pixilated nude photos of Hill.
In one of the photographs, a naked Hill is sitting behind the fully dressed young intern, brushing her hair in a sick facsimile of maternal tenderness. In another, Hill is holding a bong.
Her defenders have cited the photographs in order to cast her as a victim of “revenge porn.”
But the real victim emerges more pitifully in heartbreaking text messages sent to Heslep in June, in which the young campaign staffer allegedly describes their threesome as “toxic.”
“I’m still a mess over you f---kers. I didn’t realize how much being the dirty little secret bothered me . . .
“It was a dark time and you treated me really poorly but I also stayed which I have to own.”
And later, “I am still in love with her. It rips my heart out every time I have to see her . . . She doesn’t care or really have any concept of how deep the wounds go.”
At face value, the messages appear to depict an abusive, exploitative relationship. However, as part of an ugly divorce, it’s only fair to take them with a grain of salt.
Hill is innocent until proven guilty. But, of course, that is a right she did not afford Justice Brett Kavanaugh when she was branding him a “serial predator.”
Projection, much?