The Missouri Republican Senate primary is already getting personal as Rep. Vicky Hartzler knocked former Gov. Eric Greitens over the lurid allegations that prompted him to resign from office in 2018.
‘It is not conservative to tie a woman up in your basement and assault her,’ Hartzler said Tuesday, according to the Missouri Independent, as candidates traveled to Jefferson City to file for the race.
Greitens, who has been leading in early polling of the race, resigned the governorship after being indicted in 2018 over claims he sexually and physically assaulted his hairdresser in 2015 – and used nude photographs taken of her to keep her quiet.
The Missouri Republican Senate primary is already getting personal as Rep. Vicky Hartzler (left) knocked former Gov. Eric Greitens (right) over the lurid allegations that prompted him to resign from office in 2018
Greitens admitted to having an extramarital affair with his hairdresser and said their encounters were consensual.
The charges were later dropped over lack of evidence, though a report from Missouri legislature found her claims to be credible.
The woman told the legislative committee that Greitens invited her over for ‘some sort of, like, sexy workout.’
When she arrived he had ‘prepared clothes for her to change into’ and led her to the basement where he ‘taped her hands to pull-up rings … and then put a blindfold on her.’
The then-governor drank water and spit it into her mouth, saying he was trying to keep her ‘hydrated.’
‘I just realized he’s trying to kiss me,’ she continued. ‘But I don’t even want to kiss him. So I just spit it out. He does it and he’s like, “You’re not going to be a bad girl are you? Tries to do it again, to which I just let it dribble out, because I didn’t even want to kiss him again.”‘
The woman told lawmakers the governor started kissing her from the neck down. He ripped open her shirt – without her consent – commented on a scar on her stomach, and pulled down her pants.
She then reported that she saw a flash from a camera through the blindfold.
‘You’re not going to mention my name. Don’t even mention my name to anybody at all, because if you do, I’m going to take these pictures and I’m going to put them everywhere I can,’ she said he threatened. ‘They are going to be everywhere, and then everyone will know what a little w***e you are.’
She agreed not to mention his name through gritted teeth, she told lawmakers.
‘Now that’s a good girl,’ the then governor replied.
He then continued kissing her stomach and motioned toward performing oral sex on her, she said.
‘I just started freaking out and I started ripping down my hands. I was like, “Get me out of here, I’m not ready for this. I don’t want this. I don’t want this,”‘ she recounted. ‘I was definitely fearful.’
As she threatened to leave, Greitens grabbed her in a ‘bear hug’ and laid her down on the basement floor.
She cried and recalled that he ‘starts undoing his pants, and he takes his penis out and puts it, like near where my face is.’
The woman said she started performing oral sex on the governor because she was convinced she wouldn’t be able to leave otherwise.
When asked if the oral sex was consensual she answered: ‘It felt like consent, but no, I didn’t want to do it.’
‘Coerced, maybe. I felt as though that would allow me to leave,’ she said.
The woman said she left Greitens house, but had to return later that day for her keys.
At that moment, Greitens explained why he photographed her in the basement.
‘He said, I know … but you have to understand, I’m running for office, and people will get me, and I have to have some sort of thing to protect myself. And I thought about you, though, and I felt bad, so I erased it,’ she said she was told.
‘To which – you know, I didn’t believe him, but at least, he, like, acknowledged that it was messed up and had a reason why,’ she said.
The woman said that after the basement incident she and Greitens did have consensual liaisons.
Greitens’ good standing in the polls have Republicans worried that they could lose an otherwise easily winnable Senate seat.
Politico reported earlier this month that Greitens would have just a slim lead over Democrat Lucas Kunce if the election were held now.
Since then, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley has endorsed Hartzler, who’s been serving in Congress in 2011.
Hawley’s choice of Hartzler annoyed Rep. Billy Long, who’s also vying for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Roy Blunt.
He called Politico last week and went on a tirade about it.
‘I’d always considered us to be friends, I’d always supported him, I think a lot of him and his wife and his kids still,’ Long said of Hawley. ‘But it’s disappointing, it’s very disappointing. Why didn’t he just say, “Hey, you’re not raising the money, you’re down in the polls, we need to consolidate, Billy, I’m probably going to endorse Hartzler here poretty soon.’
‘I just wish he’d shot straight with me,’ Long added.
Hawley’s endorsement also turned heads in Trumpworld, as Hartzler hasn’t thrown praise at the former president nearly as much as her rivals.
Missouri’s Senate primary takes place on August 2.
