From the Argus Leader, Republican Leadership has released a statement, noting allegations that Representative Dave Johnson cursed out Rep Lynne DiSanto as not what witnesses heard:
House Majority Leader Lee Qualm, R-Platte, and Assistant Majority Leader Kent Peterson, R-Salem, told reporters Thursday that allegations about what happened between Reps. David Johnson, R-Rapid City, and Lynne DiSanto, R-Box Elder, a week prior had been overblown.
Qualm rejected allegations that Johnson referred to DiSanto as a “f—— lying b—-” as DiSanto and another lawmaker who witnessed the fight said later.
“I know other people that were there, and that’s not what they heard,” Qualm said.
and…
And contrary to DiSanto’s reports that House Speaker Mark Mickelson told her to drop the investigation as it could give the caucus a “black eye,” Qualm said she was not pressured to end the investigation.
“We never once said not to move forward with the process if that’s what they wanted to do,” Qualm said.
I had started to hear about this yesterday – that Leadership was extremely unhappy with DiSanto and May because it appears they went to the media with a big fat fish story. And not just that, they attacked leadership in conjunction with it. As you’ll recall:
“He actually started yelling expletives as soon as he is passing behind me is, is already very upset and yelling. I said, ‘You need to calm down, Dave,'” DiSanto said.
DiSanto says that’s when Johnson turned his rage on her. May, who witnessed the whole thing, told us what Johnson called DiSanto.
“‘You f***ing, lying, b****,’ over and over and over,” May said.
Wow. There are too many reports to be ignored that give indications that the story being presented by one side might not mesh up with the facts as reported by people who were standing right there (as well as the video).
Johnson offered his apology and DiSanto supposedly accepted. Or so we thought.
Every day the drama is drug out, and potentially embellished is not helping anyone in the matter.
Disanto went from victim to high ground to looking bad in the whole deal.
Kaiser and May did not come out of this good either
Neither does Johnson.
What a mess.
“F’ing B” ? #MeToo
The issue is that people said that didn’t happen. I have heard that includes people who were standing right there.
So would that be hearsay? Much like what happened with Abdallah? How many posts did you have about accusations made against him again? Anne Beal is usually right-on when making observations and it’d seem she’s pretty close on the way DiSantio is being treated on this one. Good ol boys, right?
KM, Why would the witnesses who were there lie?
Pat, ask Rolling Stone ? #MeToo
Not my point, PP but I’ll roll with it.
Why would May lie, she was a witness. Qualm says there were other people there that didn’t hear what May claims to have heard, who are these people and why won’t they come forward? Was Qualm a witness, doesn’t seem to be the case, seems to be speaking for others. Are the others lying b/c they dislike DiSanto?
What I thought was most interesting is how many times Johnson approached DiSanto and then attempted to walk away but turned back several times to continue engaging. He also seems to be quite angry by observing his gestures. I don’t know what he said, but I’m aware it wasn’t very professional and he’s most likely regretful.
Yeah, it’s amazing how many times he tried to walk away and DiSanto continued to engage in conversation with him, even though she claims it made her fearful. That doesn’t seem to quite line up. He was the one willing to end the conversation multiple times, she appears to be the one continuing it.
When speaking about Abdallah, victim statements are not considered hearsay in the court of law.
Hearsay statements are challenged in court rooms all the time. If they were taken as truth without being questioned many innocent people would be jailed.
Have you heard from Haugaard?
Let me see… witnesses won’t corroborate her story. Kaiser led the charge on this and didn’t even appear to be present at the time.
Here’s what I know. If you have a legitimate issue, you stick to one story. You have your witnesses backing you up. You probably don’t run to a public disciplinary committee right away.
So other than being a snowflake, what’s the issue? I suspect this is more about sticking a barb in a fellow legislator prior to the upcoming elections than anything else.
So we should throw Johnson out for using profanity….yeah who is without sin may cast the first stone….
So, should the committee be re-formed to investigate the conduct unbecoming of the “lying” legislators, who have set out to defame Johnson?
Kaiser – Cheap opportunist
Johnson – Hot head
DiSanto – Drama queen
May – Chief crazy officer
Nothing we didn’t already know…. Move on….nothing to see here.
Best summary yet, thank you Mr. anon1
How have we not heard Representative Haugaard’s description of what happened yet? He was literally standing between them the whole time.
“I know other people that were there, and that’s not what they heard,” Qualm said.
I think we did…
I say they settle it in the Thunderdome. Two men enter, one man leaves. I think DiSanto could take him any day.
I dunno if we’re quite to the Thunderdome yet, but somebody needs to face the wheel.
Now I want to know what DiSanto supposedly was lying about. 🙂
I really don’t want to know and don’t care. But, that is my point: If DiSanto & May are really keeping this alive, it is only making it worse for DiSanto long-term for it is making her look like a snowflake (its words said in the heat of the moment. Move on) and dishonorable (if she accepted the apology, honor dictates she not keep feeding the fire)..
He apologized. She accepted. Its over. Period. End of Story. Unless he didn’t apologize or she didn’t accept the apology. So which is it?
Just listen to Mr. Johnson’s floor talkings about that law bill she tried to smoke up.
Another situation where leadership ignores it responsibility by failing to investigate and issue a report.
While we do not have audio of the altercation, we do have audio of both the committte hearing and the floor debate of HB 1287.
In both the committee hearing and the floor presentation, DiSanto makes it clear that the Division of Insurance helped to craft the bill but then opted to take a neutral stance on it.
In the floor debate, Johnson claimed that when she presented it to the committee, she stated that the Division of Insurance was in full support, and that she misrepresented their position. He accused her of a lack of integrity. In her response to this, you can hear how angry she is at the suggestion that she lied about it in committee.
Following that it doesn’t really matter exactly what words were used after session ended. All you need to know is that during the floor debate, Johnson made a demonstrably false accusation against DiSanto. Things got ugly. Johnson apologized. DiSanto was encouraged to accept the apology. And then everybody piled on her calling her a drama queen, a snowflake, and saying she was asking for it.
good detective work and reporting Ann to give us the larger story….
the only thing I would change/dispute was at the end after you say Disanto was encouraged to accept the apology you need to insert
Then the tape was released showing that Johnson did not need to be restrained as previously reported, it looked not like a fight but a disagreement, it did not even rise to argument in my mind and only then after the tape was out did people start saying she was a snowflake and drama queen as most people I talked to said “that was it?!”