The news Tuesday night that Missouri’s embattled Gov. Eric Greitens was resigning rather than face near-certain removal from office was a fast end to a political saga that many thought would end with the former Navy SEAL in the White House.
Facing charges ranging from sexual abuse of a former mistress to misuse of the mailing list of a nonprofit organization he founded, Greitens opted to quit rather than fight almost-certain impeachment and prosecution in court.
There were reportedly two factors that turned a defiant Greitens — who had insisted until Tuesday he would fight all of the accusations — to throw in the towel.
Sources in Jefferson City told Newsmax that Sarah Steelman, who heads the Office of Administration responsible for paying the state’s bills, told the governor point blank on Tuesday morning that the state would not pick up the tab for his legal expenses.
In addition, other sources told me, major contributors to Greitens, clearly not wanting to have their names brought out in a trial, began over the weekend to exert pressure on him to quit the governorship.
Along with being a SEAL, Greitens was a Rhodes scholar, a winner of the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, a White House fellow, and founder of The Mission Continues, a nonprofit organization to help veterans.
In 2016, having switched from Democrat to Republican a year before, first-time office-seeker Greitens handily won the Republican nomination for governor over three seasoned politicians and was elected governor in the fall.
At age 42, the new governor was boomed as a future presidential candidate and in demand as a speaker at Republican events nationwide.
At 44, he will formally surrender the top job in the Show-Me State to fellow Republican and Lt. Gov. Mike Parson.
Following Greitens’ resignation, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner, who had been leading the prosecution against him, announced "a fair and just resolution" of pending charges facing the governor has been reached—a strong signal he will not have to serve prison time.
Pundits immediately likened Greitens to other rising stars in politics who flamed out fast. One analogy heard frequently was that of Vice President Spiro Agnew, who rose from president of the Loch Raven (Maryland) Kiwanis Club in 1962 to a heartbeat from the presidency in 1968.
In 1973, Agnew was considered a strong bet to become the Republican nominee for president in ’76 until revelations of his taking kickbacks from contractors doing business with the state of Maryland while he was governor surface and led to his resignation in October of ’73.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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