Indicted congressman who blamed his wife now says leave her out of it
Duncan Hunter threw his wife under the bus very publicly a few days ago. Now he doesn’t want anyone to talk about her.
When Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) was indicted last week for stealing campaign money to fund his family’s lavish personal expenses, he immediately blamed his wife for his crimes. But now, he has rediscovered his chivalry and says she should be left out of conversations over his scandals.
A reporter from KGTV in San Diego tracked Hunter down before an event on Tuesday, and asked him about the charges for which he has been indicted.
“Leave my wife out of it, leave my family out of it,” Hunter said. “It’s me they’re after anyway. They’re not after my wife; they want to take me down, that’s what they’re up to.”
Following the event, Hunter was pursued by reporters as he searched for his car, and initially refused to answer questions. When pressed, Hunter again said to “leave my wife out of it,” and he promised to “expose the leftists in the U.S. attorney’s office” who brought the charges.
Hunter’s sudden defense of his wife, Margaret, is an about-face from the position he took last week.
During a Fox News interview days after the indictment, Hunter said he had given Mrs. Hunter “power of attorney” in 2003, and that she had been in control of his finances since then.
“I’m gone five days a week, I’m home for two, and she was the campaign manager,” he told Fox News. “So whatever she did on that, that will be looked at, too, I’m sure. But I didn’t do it.”
Hunter is accused of stealing campaign money to fund a family trip to SeaWorld, a shopping spree at Disneyland, 30 shots of tequila and a steak at a bachelor party, a pair of shorts that were passed off as golf balls to be donated to wounded warriors, several family vacations, and a plane ticket for the family’s pet rabbit, among other things.
Hunter was the second member of Congress to endorse the 2016 Trump campaign — preceded only by recently indicted Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) — and is following Trump’s strategy of attacking the media and the Trump Department of Justice to evade responsibility for his actions.
But like Trump, Hunter’s distractions and evasions can’t protect him from the truth, which will eventually come to light.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
Recommended
More than half of Republican Jay Ashcroft’s funding comes from outside Missouri
Ashcroft has criticized other campaigns for relying on out-of-state donors
By Jesse Valentine - April 25, 2024Battleground GOP candidates rally around Trump’s tax cuts for the rich
Even Larry Hogan, a Trump critic, supports the former president’s tax policy.
By Jesse Valentine - April 12, 2024A deleted tweet and a fundraising plea: Mike Rogers bends the knee to Trump
Trump endorsed Rogers’ U.S. Senate campaign on March 12
By Jesse Valentine - March 20, 2024