Saturday House Cleaning — Kentucky Style
On Thursday evening, Speaker of the House Hoover was named in a secretive sexual harassment settlement, as reported by the Courier Journal.
More: Kentucky House Speaker Faces Uncertain Future After Sex Harassment Allegations Surface
Later on Thursday, Dems said they wanted answers. GOP was mostly silent.
This scandal had apparently been known by the media for a couple of weeks. Our sources tell us they were verifying their sources during this window.
We don’t yet know who paid the settlement. Taxpayer money?
On Friday, Hoover stated he has no plans to resign.
Then, Saturday happened. If you weren’t sitting at your computer all day, you probably missed some of it. It was non-stop action. Below is a play by play, as far as we can tell. (This post will be updated.)
It started to get interesting when we learned that three other GOP lawmakers were named in the settlement. They are Michael Meredith of District 19, Bryan Linder from Northern Kentucky and Jim Decesare of Bowling Green.
At 12:25, GOP Rep Wesley Morgan informed us he had reported the incident to the FBI.
I have just notified the FBI of this possible Hobbs Act violation and they are looking into it as we speak.
— Wesley Morgan (@WesleyMorganKY) November 4, 2017
Says incident goes beyond Hoover.
At 4:30 on Saturday, during a hurriedly scheduled press conference (not a Facebook live video) @GovMattBevin said, “any elected official or state employee who has settled a sexual harassment claim should resign immediately.”
But it was clear Bevin was demanding Hoover — and anyone, elected or appointed who is involved either in the alleged harassment or the settlement — resign. He said those involved should resign their elected or appointive offices as well as any leadership post. – From Richmond Register article
Watch the press conference video here.
Members of the GOP issued a statement that they stand behind Hoover.
Later that same evening, a different group of (mostly uber-conservative Christian) GOP House Reps issued a press release saying they never were part of a unified statement, and called for the “immediate resignation of all members involved in the confidential settlement of all allegations of misconduct with legislative staff.” as well as “any house member or LRC staff that participate in, or in any way abided in the underlying conduct or sought to intimidate staff, or otherwise obstruct the reporting or publication of the alleged misconduct.”
Have we missed anything?