Missouri lawmakers react to revealing House report on Greitens’ charity

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle agreed that Wednesday afternoon’s report on Gov. Eric Greitens use of a charity donor list is concerning.

“The governor basically stole from the veteran’s group,” said House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty.

In a statement, McCann Beatty said Greitens lacked the moral authority necessary to govern.

“Quite frankly, do you want a bill that’s going to go to this governor?” she said.

GOP Representative Mike Stephens said that although he was “troubled” by the “salacious” information in the first report, and now the details in the second, lawmakers should remain fair and not rush to judgment.

“The governor did himself no favors at all in burning all of his bridges before he got here but none of that really needs to affect the outcome of this,” said Stephens.

He deferred to House leadership on the case of whether the governor should be impeached.

Representative Peter Merideth did not hold back on his calls for the governor’s immediate impeachment.

“Bottom line, again, the governor does not think the rules apply to him and we are going to have to hold him accountable for that fact,” he said. “Impeach him now.”

McCann Beatty indicated that there will likely be a special session for the House to consider beginning the impeachment process.

GOP Representative Shamed Dogan said he thought that for someone who lectured the legislature on ethics, it was “pretty ironic” that the governor would use the list from the veteran’s charity without authorization.

“I’ve worked at a non-profit and the idea that you can take a non profit list and use it for political purposes is flat out wrong,” he said. “Eric Greitens knew it was wrong at the time he was doing it, and there were questions raised by the people he was telling to do this. So it’s very serious.”

Lawmakers agreed the House committee shouldn’t be rushed in finishing its work so that legislators could proceed correctly and fairly.