NBC News contributor Hugh Hewitt to Senate candidate Eric Greitens: “You are accused by a witness of half rape”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Updated

From the March 24, 2021, edition of the Salem Radio Network's The Hugh Hewitt Show

HUGH HEWITT (HOST): Look, you're talking to a Republican. I just want to win the Senate, Eric, and I'm afraid you'll be Todd Aikin 2.0. I'm afraid Todd Aikin got killed over "legitimate rape" and in this Missouri report, you are accused by a witness of half rape. What are you going to do when the ads attack you of half rape?

ERIC GREITENS (GUEST): Hugh, again sir, I have so much respect for you. You gotta look at the facts. Here's the facts, sir. Again, $120,000 cash bribe was paid and the person who you're referencing said that they might be remembering their accusations through a dream. That's the fact when they actually -- 

HEWITT: Is that the woman with whom you had the affair? Is that who we're talking about? 

GREITENS: That's exactly right, Hugh. That's what they said.

...

HEWITT: So from a political standpoint, Eric, when you run for office, they're going to read into the record witness one, two, three, and four in front of the Missouri legislature accusing you of half rape, of taking -- they're going to do that. How are you going to survive that?

As Media Matters has noted, Greitens is attempting a political comeback with the assistance of Steve Bannon:

Eric Greitens was elected governor of Missouri in 2016 as a young rising star for Republicans, but was forced to resign two years later following reports of sexual assault, blackmail, and campaign finance violations. (His campaign paid $178,000 in fines for campaign finance violations, but The Missouri Ethics Commission “found no evidence of any wrongdoing” by Greitens himself.) He has spent the last year testing the waters for a comeback -- in recent months, that comeback has been staged on fringe right-wing media platforms, where he pushed the bogus voter fraud conspiracy theories that fueled an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. When those lies boiled over into violence, he blamed “the left.”

H/T @dabbs346

Update (March 24, 5:45 p.m.): Hewitt points out on Twitter that the phrase “half-rape” -- which he used multiple times in this clip while focusing on the political consequences of the quotation existing -- was taken from a report to the Missouri legislature; that report was referenced in the blockquote above.