Followed by the expose' of a local newspaper of a video of him kissing his staff member, Representative Vance McAllister has not yet reported to the House of Representatives and skipped the voting on budgetary matters for two days now.
McAllister, a republican, was elected as representative of Lousiana's 5th congressional district through a special runoff election in 2013 after Representative Rodney Alexander vacated his seat to become secretary of Louisiana Department of Veteran Affairs. McAllister is a conservative lawmaker and talked about Christian values on his first term.
McAllister's earlier statement mentioned that he has no plans to resign, but since the controversial kissing scandal was exposed, the congressman has not yet appeared in the House to attend deliberations. His spokesman clarified that the representative is with his family in their Louisiana home.
The Ouachita Citizen, a newspaper based in Louisiana, released a surveillance video on Monday that showed a man who turned the lights off in the room and then kissed and embraced a woman. Accordingly, that man in the video was McAllister and the woman was purportedly his staff who is married and has been working for a long-time for the congressman. The kissing-scandal happened sometime in December 2013, just a month after he started his term.
A staff of McAllister confirmed that the woman in the video has "voluntarily resigned" by the statesman after the controversy broke.
The husband of the woman in the video told CNN that he was clearly devastated in the incident and accused the lawmaker of "wrecking his life."
After the controversy broke, McAllister admitted his indiscretion and issued a public apology. "There's no doubt I've fallen short and I'm asking for forgiveness. I'm asking for forgiveness from God, my wife, my kids, my staff, and my constituents who elected me to serve," the 40-year old Lousiana statesman said.
According to McAllister, he realized that trust is something that he knew he has to earn and promised to "do everything I can to earn back the trust of everyone I've disappointed."
He also clarified that he did not want to make a political statement out of the issue. "I would just simply like to say that I'm very sorry for what I've done. While I realize I serve the public, I would appreciate the privacy given to my children as we get through this," his statement concluded.
The House of Representatives refused to comment on the whether McAllister should resign. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was pleased with McAllister's public apology and reiterated that American people deserve their representatives "to hold to a very high standard of behavior."
Other congressmen are already submitting proposals that require sexual harassment trainings for the members of the congress and their staff.
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