Let's talk about those videos

Statewide reporting, and GOP response, show troubling behavior

If you haven’t seen it, some disturbing videos show my opponent, Kyler Sweely, simulating sexual assault on an unconscious woman. I won’t post them here, but you can find them on Reddit, Facebook, Twitter/X, and likely other social media.

There’s been considerable reporting on it, and I’ll link to all of those below, before I get to some of my comments and elements I want to make sure are clearly understood.

Wichita Eagle - this is by far the most comprehensive story.

Endorsement of Jason Probst by Wichita Eagle

Topeka Capital Journal

Kansas Reflector

Harvey County Now

You are free to read through those and decide for yourselves whether you think these two people are fit for office. I, for one, do not think they are.

These videos were anonymously sent to me earlier in October, and I promptly turned them over to law enforcement.

I said from the beginning that my opponent’s entire campaign was built on a lie, and that he was a tool of the establishment and wealthy elites. The Republican leadership in Topeka and groups like the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, AFP, and another half dozen money groups that have spent untold amounts of money in an attempt to slander and ruin my name, have worked incredibly hard to prop up Sweely’s campaign.

This new reporting validates my position. In this election, I have been maliciously attacked, lied about, smeared, and had my character called into question. It has been my supporters, volunteers, and me against the full force of the Republican/Corporatist machine.

The top Republican in the Kansas House, Dan Hawkins, once told me that he despises liars. But, his office repeatedly tried to kill a story that would expose the lies of my opponent, and the lies of his friend State Rep. Avery Anderson, who is in charge of the Republican House Campaign Committee. This is the group that recruited and promoted my opponent in the first place.

Hawkins’ Chief of Staff Carrie Rahfaldt threatened reporters with a bad time if they ran the story, then claimed Hawkins had no idea what she was doing. It’s not often that leadership staff makes any substantial moves without the approval of the Speaker. An excerpt from the story…

“During that interview, she told the reporter to “kill the story” and said if her statements were used, “We’re going to have some problems. If you use my statement without my permission, we’re going to have some major problems.”

Rahfaldt called The Eagle after a reporter reached out to Sweely with questions about the video. She introduced herself in a voicemail as “I work in Dan Hawkins’ office.” She later said Hawkins “has no idea about any of this” and that she was helping Sweely because he asked her for help. She said she was not being paid by Sweely or the speaker’s office or Avery to speak to reporters about the video.

“I’m just doing this out of like — I’m a mom who is — this is completely out of my scope of things that I do. Like, I’m trying to facilitate, I guess, finding out the truth,” she said. “Kyler is just a kid. And so is Avery Anderson. I hate to see this ruin their lives.” Hawkins did not return a phone call Wednesday.”

Meanwhile, Hawkins referred to me as a “vulture” - blaming me for the distribution of the video, which I had nothing to do with. I showed the video to a few close friends and asked for their guidance. We all agreed I should alert law enforcement and wash my hands of the videos, which is precisely what I did.

Several weeks after I turned the video over to police, other people I have never met began forwarding me the videos asking me if I had seen them. That’s when I learned the videos had spread online.

I’ll post the full police report as well, which shows that Anderson and Sweely have changed their stories several times. We’ve heard that it was a double date, that it was just three people, then four people. Anderson tells police he was the voice on the video, and then calls back later - after receiving multiple media inquiries about his role - to “clarify” that he was in the other room.

This flies in the face of statements made by Sweely, who so eloquently told the Wichita Eagle, “One-hundred-thousand percent also that was not Representative Avery Anderson in the video or that took the video,” Sweely said. “He was not even there.”

At some point, I hope they’ll all get together and figure out what their final version of the truth is going to be.

I’m skeptical of all these people who doth protest too much - advising this group of people are individuals who hired an actress and stood up an out-of-state PAC to record a completely fabricated hit ad on a Wichita mayoral candidate.

Not to mention, if nothing criminal or inappropriate happened, why all the effort to cover it up? And why is Anderson so desperate to put distance between himself and the incident?

In all of this, there’s never once been an acknowledgement by Sweely or Anderson or by any of the other political operatives involved in this that they did anything wrong. Not once.

Instead, they have spent all of their energy trying to shift the blame to me. They’ve said that I’m the one who spread the video and made a political issue of it. Go through my material, and you’ll find this is the first time I’ve said anything on the matter - outside of a veiled reference in a comment and a post on Facebook after the video was widely shared in the community.

But they have failed through all of this to hold themselves to the same level of accountability they hold others.

When people in Kansas are trying to access food benefits, unemployment benefits, or ask their lawmakers to expand Medicaid and give them access to affordable healthcare - people like Anderson, Sweely, and Hawkins will scream that people need to be held accountable for their actions.

In this instance, it seems, they hope to deflect blame to everyone else.

As the Wichita Eagle Editorial Board stated in their endorsement of my candidacy…

“Our perspective is that even viewed in the best possible light, this video raises serious questions about whether Sweely and Anderson possess the maturity and judgment required to responsibly serve as state legislators. Kansans have a right to expect a higher level of personal conduct from their elected representatives than what we’re seeing here.”

I have friends and family who have suffered through varying degrees of sexual assault - from workplace harassment to horrific crimes that most of you likely couldn’t handle to read about. As a reporter, I’ve covered dozens of sexual abuse cases and each has one thing in common - the offender always finds someone else to blame and they never accept responsibility for what they’ve done. There’s a term for it - DARVO - an acronym for Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.

Sweely nor Anderson have taken any responsibility for their actions. And they have yet to make any sort of apology or statement of regret for their behavior - or for lying to the people of Kansas and specifically the people of the 102nd District in Hutchinson.

Instead, I got a threatening email from Anderson’s attorney claiming defamation. A colleague of mine, who also received the email, responded and pointed out that Avery’s claims to his attorney differed from what was in the Wichita Police Department’s police report.

Avery himself told law enforcement that he was the in the room and he was the voice on the video. Then, after realizing he messed up, called law enforcement to tell them that his first statement was all wrong and that he suddenly remembered there was someone else in the room the whole time.

We’ve yet to receive a substantive response from his attorney.

Which brings me to the police report.

I’m posting the police report here to illustrate a few other truths.

1. Kyler Sweely told law enforcement that his residence is in Newton. It is my belief that if he votes for himself on Nov. 5, he will be guilty of either voter fraud or lying to law enforcement. And I know how concerned our legislative leadership and our Attorney General are about voter fraud, so I’ll expect them to waste no time in prosecuting this case.

2. The story about what happened the night these videos were filmed keeps changing. It’s all over the place. Each new statement from Anderson or Sweely contradicts the previous statements.

3. Avery Anderson is actively being sued by a woman for abuse, according to the police report. She also sent the videos to the press and the police.

   

I am sorry the alleged victim in this case has had to endure all of this. I wish that she hadn’t. In fact, I wish that the actions of Sweely and whoever else Anderson decides was or wasn’t present at the time, never happened at all. I’m glad she didn’t feel like a victim, and I hope that’s genuine. Victims throughout history have been coerced into minimizing their feelings about the abuse they’ve suffered - or been outright threatened if they dare come forward.

That’s the only apology I’ll offer here.

I owe no apology to reckless men who treat women like they’re less than human, or make light of sexual abuse.

I owe no apology to a political machine that thought it could lie to my community about the integrity of their sham of a candidate.

I owe no apology to an overgrown corporate lobbying apparatus that feels entitled to ruin reputations and divide strong communities so they can financially gain.

And I owe no apology for standing up for myself, for my community, or for my state.

But I will be eagerly awaiting for an apology from them for the harm they’ve caused, for giving the public more reason not to trust public servants, and for their continued abuse of voters and the integrity of our democratic systems and ideals.