Missouri governor pressured to resign
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Calls for Gov. Eric Greitens to resign mounted Thursday, a day after lawmakers released a report alleging that the Republican governor coerced a woman into sexual activity.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and GOP Attorney General Josh Hawley recommended that Greitens resign hours after a special Missouri House committee released the report. The committee was formed after Greitens was indicted in February on a felony charge of taking a nonconsensual photograph of a partially nude woman. Greitens, 44, a former Navy SEAL who was elected governor in November 2016, denied criminal wrongdoing. He said he and the woman were in a consensual relationship for months in 2015 and decried investigative efforts as political witch hunting.
In a statement Thursday, Missouri Senate Majority Leader Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, called for Greitens to resign, acknowledging that the governor will have his day in court. Greitens’ trial is to begin in about a month.
Auditor Nicole Galloway, a Democrat, said Wednesday, “Eric Greitens needs to summon the integrity to resign. The governor’s indefensible actions and the embarrassment he continues to bring to Missouri are causing deep harm to our state.”
Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., said transcripts attached to the committee’s report “paint the picture of a vulnerable woman and a man who preyed on that vulnerability. I am disgusted, disheartened, and I believe Gov. Greitens is unfit to lead our state.”