Politician Who Framed Himself in Fake Sex Scandal to Cover Real Sex Scandal, Running Again
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
BOLDUAN: “So, you will be running again for this seat that you just resigned. The obvious question is, why should voters trust you to represent them after everything that went down in such a bizarre fashion?”
COURSER: “Well, I've taken ownership for the underlying issues in regards to my failings, the -- nobody has failed really politically as large as I have. And yet I do think the voters need to take that into consideration and look at the record that I have and then just consider that. I think it's really important. There was a huge media storm that related to all of this. There's also a failure inside of that for the people and the voters to have an opportunity to weigh in. And the expulsion hearing, the way they went through it with three votes and locking down the state house for the better part of 14 hours and forcing representatives not to use the rest room or eat until they voted, it's just totalitarian in the way it was handled. Most representatives never even had an opportunity to read the 833 pages, which was filled with a lot of accusations but very little evidence in regards to wrongdoing.”
BERMAN: “So, wrongdoing, what do you think, then, that you dp constitutes wrongdoing? Was it leaking a story, inventing a liaison with a male prostitute to cover up an affair with a colleague? Does that constitute wrongdoing?”
COURSER: “Right, yeah, obviously the underlying relationship was, I would say, the wrongdoing.”
BERMAN: “Not the leaking of the story?”
COURSER: “No. The next step of attempting to cover that up. There was a reason that e-mail was sent out. I've taken, obviously, ownership for that as a failure. That was a really, really dark moment in my life. In that moment made a really, really poor choice. So, I think the voters need to weigh in on whether or not that is something that's egregious and they don't want me to serve as their state representative. But I've given them good representation in the state house with the most conservative voting record, probably the most conservative in a generation, and I've sponsored cutting-edge conservative legislation. And I think the voters need to weigh in on whether or not that's the kind of representation they want. And they also have to look at the e-mail and also the past and determine whether those -- were those moments that are now corrected? My wife and I are now in counseling and working through those steps.”
BOLDUAN: “Mr. Courser, though, on the most basic level, you're in an affair with another lawmaker, extra-martial affair. At any point when you're caught up in such a bizarre attempt to cover it up, leaking an e-mail, saying you had this tryst with a male prostitute, at any point did you think, why am I going this far? I think what boggles everyone's mind is the cover-up is way more bizarre than an extra-martial affair. Why did you do that?”
COURSER: “In those moments it's really difficult to describe but there's an anonymous extortionist that lawmakers are still looking into, executed some warrants and it sounds like there's an organization involved in it and they're pursuing those leads. So, I think some of that's going to be played out here in the next weeks to determine really was it an organized -- an organized –“
BOLDUAN: “For your part. I think that's what people care most about right now.”
COURSER: “Well, it was in those moments. Obviously, you're looking at -- you're getting texts from an anonymous source saying they're going to release all this information. You haven't had an opportunity to work that out in regards to your family, even though you're in the moments of explaining that to your family. You don't know what they're going to bring out. There's a tremendous amount of pressure. I made a poor choice. And I think the voters, in essence, it shouldn't have been the legislators who had not read the evidence –“
BOLDUAN: “Did you think you were going to get away with it?”
COURSER: “Well, no, it wasn't really about getting away with it. It was trying to force the actual Texter to make a -- to take a step that would reveal himself. And it did to a certain extent. There is some tangential connections to one of my staffers who was actually on that tape that night.”
BERMAN: “So, judgment is often an issue connected to leadership. Judgment is an issue that voters want to look at when they –“
COURSER: “I would say character as well, and integrity.”
BERMAN: “Okay. Judgment, character, integrity. When you look at the last three months of what's happened in Michigan, in Lansing and about, what then is evidence of judgment and character and leadership.”
COURSER: “Well, I think that's for the voters to decide. Like I said, inside of this, when you're looking at that, my voting record is one that's -- they've been given very good representation. I think the voters should be able to weigh in. It shouldn't be legislators who have a political axe to grind can get together and decide they want to get rid of a member who's been a problem for them. I was a rep without a home really in the Republican caucus. I stood against them on their Progressive actions in the Republican party. So, most of the time on the big, heavy issues I voted against my own caucus. So, it was the Democrats ultimately at the end who really felt like there hadn't been a fair shake and a fair hearing. So they were the ones that held it up for 14 -- well, the better part of 14 hours in regards to my being expelled. They felt like the actual leadership in my own party was hiding something. So, they were pushing for more to be -- more to be revealed.”
BERMAN: “I'm just a little curious because you obviously have been involved with politics for a long time and have appreciated the process. Do you look at sex scandals and politics differently now?”
COURSER: “Oh, my goodness. You know, it was -- it's been horrendous experience for my family, my children, my wife. And I -- you know, I don't think people realize the human interest story and the tremendous cost that a family goes through in these situations. And it's all on me. I mean, it was my responsibility and all of that. And my wife, you know, we talked about it. Yesterday at the park, north branch, a small town, and she said, run. She said, absolutely, run. She said, the people haven't had a chance to weigh in, to hear about the good things you've done for the district. And they need to hear that. And regardless of how it falls, they need to hear those -- they need to hear those details. And so it has been a tremendous -- tremendously difficult situation, yet we've seen some really awesome stuff. You know, I'm a believer in Christ and we love to see the reclamation process in our society, but there has to be sort of that moving in the heart. As a couple, we're walking through this a looking forward to whatever God has in the next chapter."
