In her increasingly desperate attempt to hold onto her House seat, expelled representative Cindy Gamrat now says that the news media — all across the country — owe her an apology.
With three weeks until a special election is held in her west Michigan House district to fill the vacant seat, Gamrat went on Facebook Monday night to announce that she is demanding a public apology and a correction from media outlets that reported misleading information about her sex scandal with former rep Todd Courser.
According to the Plainwell Republican, reporters are responsible for “irreparable damage to me, my family, and my campaign.”
Her two complaints, however, are rather tame — or should I say, lame?
In her Facebook rant, Gamrat said that she never admitted to misusing taxpayer dollars to cover up her affair with Courser. That flies in the face of her written apology to her House colleagues in which she said she accepted the findings of the internal House investigation.
In addition, the chair of the special House committee that recommended Gamrat’s expulsion, saw things in black-and-white terms.
Rep. Ed McBroom told the media that the reason for such a short stint by the committee — just a few days of hearings — was that Courser and Gamrat essentially pleaded guilty during their testimony.
Gamrat’s second complaint about the media is even more petty, a mere battle over semantics. The disgraced lawmaker said she did not share a House office with Courser, a Lapeer Republican. She bases this on the physical location of their two offices.
Yet, clearly the media reports focused on how these two tea party lawmakers took the unprecedented step of sharing staff, though their two districts were located nearly 200 miles apart.
Here is Gamrat’s Facebook message, in full:
This media advisory is addressed to all local, state, and national media.
I am requesting an immediate apology and correction from all media outlets that have reported the following misleading and inaccurate statements:
1. That I admitted to misusing taxpayer dollars to cover up an affair.
These are false statements and the continuous circulation of these false statements have caused harm to myself, my family, and my campaign.
Also, I have not been found guilty of a crime nor have any costs to the state been assessed to me regarding misuse of taxpayer dollars or otherwise.
In addition, each Representative has their own office as did I. The office of the Representative in question was on another floor and on opposite sides of the building, and across the street from each other. There was an overlap of staff duties for each office.
I am requesting a public apology and correction from all media outlets who have reported these false statements. I am also requesting to be copied and made aware of each correction.
Also, let it be known for future reporting, that you have been made aware of the inaccuracies of these statements.
I appreciate and respect the necessary role of the media, and all the hard work that has been done to get on top of this story. I expect that this is just a simple oversight, however, these errors have continued unaddressed for far too long and are causing irreparable damage to me, my family, and my campaign.
I anticipate each news outlet will be just as eager to set the record straight and make a correction regarding these statements as they were in reporting them.
Thank you for your quick and timely response in addressing this,
Cindy Gamrat
Its about time. This whole affrair was so over blown.