Hartzler: Report on Greitens ‘surpasses disturbing.’ McCaskill: He should resign

The report issued on Wednesday about the behavior of Republican Gov. Eric Greitens “surpasses disturbing,” said Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzler. “It is disgusting.”

Hartzler is one of only two Republican women serving in the state’s congressional delegation. Other Republican members of the delegation have yet to respond to requests for comment from The Kansas City Star.

Hartzler’s strongly worded statement in response to Wednesday’s report by a bipartisan House investigative committee stopped short of calling directly on Greitens to resign, but Hartzler said his alleged behavior is not “befit for a leader in Missouri or anywhere else for that matter.”

The report recounts allegations that Greitens performed non-consensual sex acts on a woman, coerced oral sex from her and struck her at least three times over the course of several months in 2015, before he ran for public office. The governor called the allegations lies in a press conference shortly before the report’s release on Wednesday afternoon.

“Although he is certainly due his day in court, these reports further call into question his character as an individual, regardless of whether a law has been broken or not,” she said.

She praised the “deliberate steps” taken by the Missouri General Assembly to respond to the allegations and said she was praying for the governor’s wife, Sheena Greitens, their children and others who have been affected by the scandal.

“More now than ever before we are in desperate need of honorable people with integrity willing to dedicate themselves to public service,” Hartzler said. “Our government needs it and the people of Missouri and our nation deserve it.”

Missouri's Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, a former prosecutor who is in a tough battle for re-election this year, called on Greitens to resign.

“I have read the official report from the Republican led Missouri House investigation, including the sworn testimony," she said in a statement. "It is clearly time to put the interests of the people of Missouri first. The Governor should resign.”

State Auditor Nicole Galloway, a Democrat, said Greitens "needs to summon the integrity to resign."

She said Greitens' "indefensible actions and the embarrassment he continues to bring to Missouri are causing deep harm to our state.”

John Hancock, a Republican operative and former Missouri GOP chairman, said it's impossible not to be disgusted by the allegations in the report.

"I can't begin to imagine the humiliation that the governor must be feeling," Hancock said.

"We may never know exactly what transpired, but putting yourself in a position to have these sorts of charges come forth shows a profound lack of judgment, and whatever may or may not be true, that profound lack of judgment is inarguable," he said.

It will be hard for the state legislature to stay focused on the work of governing with these allegations hanging over the head of the governor, Hancock added.

"I mean this is such a bizarre and sad ordeal," he said. "It's hard to even think about government given a fact set like this."

This story was originally published April 11, 2018 at 7:25 PM with the headline "Hartzler: Report on Greitens ‘surpasses disturbing.’ McCaskill: He should resign."