"There's no doubt I've fallen short and I'm asking for
forgiveness," Representative Vance McAllister said in a
statement issued by his office. "I'm asking for forgiveness from
God, my wife, my kids, my staff, and my constituents who elected
me to serve."
McAllister, who took office last November in a special election
that he won partly by touting his Christian values, made the
statement after the Ouachita Citizen in West Monroe, Louisiana,
posted the video on its website.
It shows a man the paper identified as McAllister walking into
the frame and turning out the lights in front of an office
doorway. The camera shifts into a grainy, low-light mode before
a woman enters the frame. The two embrace and kiss passionately
for about 30 seconds before leaving together, picked up by other
security cameras in the building.
The paper said the woman was a married member of McAllister's
staff.
The Citizen said it obtained the video, which appears to be
captured by a hand-held camera pointed at a multi-frame security
system monitor, from an anonymous source. It said the incident
occurred on December 23, 2013, inside McAllister's district
congressional office in Monroe, Louisiana.
McAllister, 40, has been married for 16 years to his wife,
Kelly, and has five children. The U.S. Army veteran, who has
business interests in oil, gas, pipelines and Subway sandwich
shops, was a newcomer to politics when he ran to fill a
congressional seat vacated last year.
After coming to Washington, he was best known for inviting
Willie Robertson, the star of the hit cable TV series "Duck
Dynasty" to be his guest at January's State of the Union address
by President Barack Obama. Robertson, who heads the Duck
Commander duck-call business, had appeared in a campaign ad for
McAllister.
McAllister's statement did not address the video directly, but
he apologized for his actions.
"Trust is something I know has to be earned whether you're a
husband, a father, or a congressman," McAllister said in his
statement. "I promise to do everything I can to earn back the
trust of everyone I've disappointed."
"From day one, I've always tried to be an honest man. I ran for
Congress to make a difference and not to just be another
politician. I don't want to make a political statement on this,
I would just simply like to say that I'm very sorry for what
I've done."
(Reporting by David Lawder; editing by Peter Cooney and Eric
Walsh)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](column_spacer.png) |