MO Senate Candidate Eric Greitens Is Somehow Even More Trash Than We Knew

How many Republican Senate candidates have been accused of spousal abuse this cycle? A LOT.

You already knew Missouri's US Senate hopeful Eric Greitens was garbage. This is, after all, the guy who had to resign as governor after a woman accused him of tying her up and taking her photograph as potential blackmail material if she told anyone about their affair. But the AP got its hands on an affidavit filed by Greitens's ex-wife Sheena Greitens in the custody dispute over their two children, and it is really, really ugly.

Prof. Greitens, a China expert who relocated to Austin where she teaches at the University of Texas, did manage to extricate herself and her children from the marriage. But now her ex-husband is seeking custody of the children, and she's alleging a shocking pattern of abuse at the end of their relationship.

“Prior to our divorce, during an argument in late April 2018, Eric knocked me down and confiscated my cell phone, wallet and keys so that I was unable to call for help or extricate myself and our children from our home,” she wrote. “I became afraid for my safety and that of our children at our home.”

She went on to describe “behavior [that] 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.”

For the record, Greitens denies the allegations.

“His ex-wife is engaged in a last-ditch attempt to vindictively destroy her ex-husband,” the candidate's spokesman Dylan Johnson told the AP. “Eric has always been a great Dad, who loves his boys and has always put them first, and that is why he is filing for full custody of his children.”

Prof. Greitens describes the ex-governor as becoming mentally unstable as his political fortunes unraveled, threatening to harm himself if she didn't publicly support him and implying that he might hurt the children if she didn't do what he asked.

At one point, Eric Greitens made a reference to the fact that he had the children — and she didn’t — while trying to persuade Sheena Greitens to delete emails she had sent to the family therapist seeking help, according to the affidavit.

“Eric threatened to accuse me of child abuse if I did not delete the emails and convince the therapist to delete them,” she wrote.

The professor also describes her ex-husband hiding a gun in the house, so that “multiple people other than myself were worried enough to intervene to limit Eric’s access to firearms.”

And if all this sounds familiar, it's because Senate candidate Sean Parnell dropped out of the race in Pennsylvania in November after similar allegations of spousal and child abuse by his ex-wife. Not to be confused with Herschel Walker in Georgia, whose ex-wife alleged pervasive abuse during their marriage, including having him hold a gun to her head and threatening to "blow her fucking brains out." Or Max Miller , a congressional candidate in Ohio, who White House comms flack Stephanie Grisham alleges abused her during their relationship.

Unlike Parnell, Walker, and Miller, though, Greitens hadn't yet secured Trump's endorsement before shit hit the fan. But he is being represented by Don Jr.'s ladyfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, who does not appear to have commented on the latest AP allegations as yet. It remains to be seen whether this will be the nail in Greitens's political coffin. Sen. Josh Hawley, who had already endorsed Rep. Vicky Hartzler, is calling for him to drop out.

If you hit a woman or a child, you belong in handcuffs, not the United States Senate. It’s time for Eric Greitens to leave this racehttps: //www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/21/greitens-domestic-violence-accusations/ …

— Josh Hawley (@Josh Hawley) 1647890384 

Notably, Hawley has not called for Walker or Miller to drop out. But surely Greitens will GTFO now, right? It's not like the GOP would nominate someone credibly accused of abuse by multiple women for a Senate candidacy, would they?

LOL.

[ AP ]

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