UPDATED: 21 MAR 2022 07:54 PM EST
New allegations against Eric Greitens are uniting Republicans of all stripes around the fear that he will cost the party dearly this fall if he's the GOP nominee in Missouri, a must-win race in the party’s fight for control of the Senate.
For months, political operatives in Missouri and Washington, D.C., warned that there would likely be more damning accusations to come out against Greitens. The other shoe dropped Monday, after the disgraced former Missouri governor’s ex-wife alleged in court documents that he abused her and their children.
It’s a development that could shake up the crowded GOP Senate primary, where Greitens has remained in the lead despite top establishment Republicans working against him — and where former President Donald Trump has so far refrained from endorsing. The allegations that Greitens abused his family, which he denies, also draw similarities to Sean Parnell, the Trump-endorsed Senate candidate who dropped out of the Pennsylvania GOP primary after losing custody of his children this fall.
Alarm in Washington is palpable as Republicans fret Greitens will blow the race to succeed retiring Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). Several Republican senators said on Monday that Greitens should exit the race, and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said the new accusations are “pretty disturbing,” calling on Trump to take a “big pause” before endorsing in the race — an eyebrow raising departure from Scott’s normal neutrality.
His remarks suggested more concern about Greitens than he had during Parnell’s child custody fight in November, when Scott insisted on remaining neutral as Parnell’s wife raised similar allegations under oath.
“We've got to understand what the facts are,” Scott said Monday, stopping short of calling on Greitens to drop out. “I think the voters will make a good decision.”
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri’s junior senator who last month endorsed Rep. Vicky Hartzler in the race to succeed Blunt, said it was “time for Eric Greitens to leave this race.” It is a message that’s resonating across the Senate GOP.
“I wish he would” drop out, said. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who has also endorsed Hartzler.
“I had qualms about him running with that first incident,” Ernst said, referring to an earlier alleged scandal. “So this is not getting better for him.”
In a statement on Monday, Greitens said he would seek full custody of his children, though his ex-wife’s affidavit explained the boys’ school and social life is currently based in Austin, Texas, where she is employed.
“I will continue to love and care for my beautiful sons with all of my being, and that includes fighting for the truth and against completely fabricated, baseless allegations,” Greitens said, accusing “political operatives and the liberal media” of lying about the accusations.
He later appeared on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” show alleging that his ex-wife had conspired with “RINO” Republicans to smear him, claiming that a news story would come out as early as Tuesday to “connect the dots directly to Mitch McConnell.”
McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to comment. Greitens became the first Senate candidate last year to publicly take on the Senate minority leader, vowing to work to oust him from leadership if elected.
In an affidavit related to the couple’s child custody arrangement, Sheena Greitens, who currently resides with the children in Austin, wrote that her ex-husband made her fear for her and her two young sons’ safety, the Associated Press first reported. The document, filed as part of Sheena Greitens’ request to move the custody case to a court in Texas, included allegations that Greitens struck her and their children, including leaving one son with a “swollen face, bleeding gums, and loose tooth.”
The couple divorced after Greitens resigned as Missouri governor mid-term in 2018 amid allegations that he sexually assaulted and blackmailed his hairstylist. Sheena Greitens on Monday did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As attorney general, Hawley investigated the then-governor in 2018 over Greitens’ use of a charity donor list to solicit campaign funds, turning the findings over to a St. Louis prosecutor. Greitens was subsequently charged with computer tampering, though the charge was dropped as part of a deal with prosecutors to resign from office.
On Monday, Hawley acknowledged he “has a little history” with Greitens and his controversies, adding he feels like he is “somewhat familiar with the former governor.”
“So unfortunately it looks like a pattern to me,” Hawley said. “She seems pretty credible to me. You talk about a child with a tooth loose that's bleeding? Come on. That's beyond the pale.”
Hawley previously endorsed Parnell and, like most Senate Republicans, is backing Herschel Walker in Georgia’s Senate race, where Walker is also facing allegations of past domestic abuse.
While the new abuse allegations provide ammunition for opposing campaigns — and potentially new anti-Greitens outside spending groups — to attack the former governor with television ads, Greitens is not expected to exit the race anytime soon.
“I don’t think he gets out. I don’t think — and never have thought — that this guy is playing with a full deck of cards,” said Gregg Keller, a Missouri-based Republican strategist who is working on a super PAC supporting Attorney General Eric Schmitt in the race. “I think he’s a psychopath and/or a sociopath, and I’m not joking when I say that.”
All major Republican candidates in the Missouri Senate race on Monday called on Greitens to drop out. Hartzler said “it’s time for Eric to get out of the Senate race and to get professional help,” while Schmitt called the allegations against Greitens “disgusting and sickening,” saying “I know a predator when I see one.”
“The behavior described in this affidavit is cause for Eric Greitens to be in prison, not on the ballot for U.S. Senate,” Schmitt said in a statement provided to POLITICO. “He should end his campaign immediately.”
Spokespeople for the state attorney general’s office and the Boone County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, where the affidavit was filed, did not immediately respond to requests for comment about any potential investigations into the allegations.
Rep. Billy Long, another candidate in the race who earlier in the day said it wasn’t his place to tell Greitens what to do, later changed his mind after reading the affidavit, saying there is “no way he can stay in this race.”
Even Democrat Lucas Kunce — whose likely only chance at victory in the general election would be on a ballot against Greitens — said Greitens should bow out.
And back in Washington, D.C., multiple top Republicans voiced concerns about Greitens remaining in the race. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Greitens “doesn't seem like the kind of person who ought to be running for the U.S. Senate.”
“There are good candidates running, so hopefully primary voters will nominate someone who can win,” Cornyn said.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune said that a Greitens nomination could amount to “the most difficult path” for Republicans to win what should be a safe Republican seat.
“I mean, the old allegations were quite substantial on their own,” Thune said. “It doesn't sound good, let's put it that way.”
