Oh my…
From Joe Perticone at The Bulwark:
During an appearance yesterday on the Talking Feds podcast, former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, caused a bit of a stir when she floated a rumor that Rep. Matt Rosendale may have a three-alarm scandal on his hands.
Just a little rumor: I think their caucus may lose a member in the next couple of days.
It might be the congressman from Montana. Just to gossip a little bit, there’s a reason why Rosendale backed out of that Senate race. The rumor is that he impregnated a 20-year-old staff person.
Immediately after I heard these words, I reached out to Rosendale’s spokesman Ron Kovach, who replied in an email, “This is 100% false and defamatory and former Senator Heitkamp will be hearing from our lawyers soon.”
Heitkamp didn’t outright claim that Rosendale is guilty of what she alleged she heard: She mentioned only that the story has been going around. That is a big difference as far as lawyers are concerned, if they do end up getting involved.
But Rosendale suddenly leaving Congress would throw the House into an even greater state of chaos, hard as that might be to imagine. Losing another member of the House Republican Conference would leave the GOP majority so thin that if you held it up you’d be able to see the sun shining through it.
Rosendale announced that he was running for the Senate against Jon Tester but dropped out almost immediately a couple of weeks ago. The Party poohbahs were unhappy that he was running because they think they have a chance to pick up the seat so everyone assumed they’d talked him out of it. But maybe that wasn’t it at all. He’s also one of the Crazy Eight who ousted McCarthy who has knives out for all of them so this might be part of it too.
Still, I think they will move heaven and earth to keep him in his seat for now. If he is forced to resign… oh, it’s just too delicious to think about.
Anyway, you just hate to hear it, don’t you? (And, by the way, what 20 year old would want to be with that guy???)