Credentials are no protection against intimidation and abuse. Just ask Sheena Greitens

What does it say about Missouri that Eric Greitens was ever the front-runner in this year’s U.S. Senate race?

The same supporters who wrote off the allegations of sexual coercion and abuse against our former governor four years ago — hey, he was never convicted of anything — will probably discount the new accusations from the mother of his children, too.

But what interests me more than the political ramifications of what Sheena Greitens alleges is this question: If even a woman as successful as the former Missouri first lady feared leaving her husband, then why do we continue to pretend that any woman, including those with far fewer resources, could just walk away from an abusive relationship if she really wanted to?

An associate professor at the University of Texas-Austin, the former Sheena Chestnut is the daughter of two doctors. A Stanford grad who was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford, she earned a Ph.D. in government from Harvard. As first lady, she researched a book on refugees from North Korea.

Yet as we know, or ought to by now, status and professional accomplishments offer no immunity from violence. According to her affidavit, Eric Greitens threatened to kill himself “unless I provided specific public political support” after the allegations against him became public.

He said he would “have me arrested for kidnapping and child abuse” if she took their children to her parents’ house. And he tried to convince her that “because of his authority as a former governor who had supported law enforcement, the police would support him and not believe me.”

After Greitens resigned in ignominy as governor of our state four years ago, we ran an editorial thanking his then-wife for her always dignified service to Missouri at an extraordinarily difficult time in her life. On Monday, the world learned just how difficult.

In an affidavit filed that day in Sheena Greitens’ ongoing custody battle, she said Eric Greitens was physically abusive to her and to their children as they were separating: “Eric knocked me down and confiscated my cellphone, wallet and keys so that I was unable to call for help or extricate myself and our children from our home. I became afraid for my safety and that of our children at our home.”

His “behavior included physical violence toward our children, such as cuffing our then-3-year-old son across the face at the dinner table in front of me and yanking him around by his hair.” Greitens called her a “lying bitch,” among other things, she said.

If all of this sounds familiar, maybe that’s because many of these assertions mirror those made by the woman who accused Greitens of blindfolding and coercing her sexually in his basement. That woman also alleged that he took away her keys and phone so she couldn’t get away. She, too, accused him of throwing her to the floor. “Out of nowhere,” she testified, he “smacked me and grabbed me and shoved me down on the ground.”

He called her a whore, she said, and restrained her in his basement after taking away her clothes.

Greitens resigned, but unfortunately did not stay gone

At the time, Republicans and Democrats in the Missouri House who heard her sworn testimony agreed on this point: They believed her. Greitens denied the violence, refused to testify before the committee and resigned.

But unfortunately, he did not stay gone. And worse, Missouri voters didn’t seem to want him to.

In denying his former wife’s allegations, Greitens left not even one of the classic defenses of intimate partner violence on the bench , claiming that she is “deranged,” mentally ill, and launching “malicious attacks that are clearly politically motivated.” So she’s motivated in part by partisanship? One of you is believable, Eric, and it’s not you.

“Co-parenting can oftentimes be challenging,” his statement piously noted, “but both parents should always have their children’s best interests at heart. Sadly, only Eric has done what is necessary to create a stable and healthy environment for his children.” Because nothing says “stable and healthy” like taping a blindfolded woman to an exercise machine and getting run out of Jeff City?

Missourians have known for years who Eric Greitens is. And voters should never even have entertained taking him back.

This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 5:00 AM.