Lansing — GOP state Rep. Jim DeSana said he apologized Monday for recently leaked statements disparaging fellow Republican state Rep. Jamie Thompson and the circumstances regarding her daughter’s 2021 death.
The Carleton Republican said he realizes his comments were “emotionally charged” and will not continue to defend his statements. He said a good portion of his House colleagues “wanted all of the drama to end.”
“And most of us felt it was a distraction to our real and substantive business,” DeSana said.
Thompson declined to comment. The Brownstown Township Republican returned to the chamber Tuesday to vote after insisting she would not return until DeSana’s comments were addressed by House GOP leadership.
DeSana does not appear to have suffered any other repercussions, beyond an apology, in the wake of his comments. Leaders in the Legislature have the power to remove legislators from committees or bar them from caucus meetings.
Last week, when asked about the issue, House Speaker Matt Hall told reporters that both DeSana and Thompson are “authentic” people. He did not answer when asked what sort of repercussions, if any, DeSana would face for his comments.
“We’ll work through it as a caucus, and we’ll get to a place where we’re working in harmony as a team,” Hall said.
In a March Zoom call, the contents of which were leaked last week, DeSana can be heard accusing Thompson of having a “victim mentality,” referencing, in part, Thompson’s public statements about her 24-year-old daughter’s death in 2021. The March 1 Zoom call was held between DeSana and leaders of the Monroe County Republican Party.
“She tells that story all the time,” DeSana said. “It’s this whole victim mentality. This is why I don’t want to have anything to do with her. I will run my race in my district. I’m not going to endorse her, support her. I am not doing something to help her. And, honestly, if she has a primary opponent, I’ll probably endorse her primary opponent.”
DeSana also can be heard in the recording calling his House colleagues “swamp rats” and “scumbags.”
Thompson has shared her daughter’s story publicly before, including from the House floor in support of a resolution recognizing February as Teen Dating Violence Awareness month.
Her daughter, Thompson has said, was a teenage mom who had three children with an abusive boyfriend before finding the courage to leave him, “only to step into another relationship with another abuser.”
That boyfriend, Thompson said, took her daughter, then 24, on a motorcycle ride in June 2021 and, out of jealousy, “drove recklessly with her on the back of the bike.” The motorcycle crashed and both were killed, Thompson has said.
The Southgate News Herald reported in 2021 that the motorcycle was traveling at a high speed in the early hours of June 24, 2021, and was believed to have lost control and hit a pothole.
DeSana, in the March 1 Zoom call, accused Thompson of causing drama within the caucus, including by sharing problems happening within her family. He noted that Thompson’s daughter had her first child as a teenager and was with another boyfriend at the time of the crash.
He was eventually interrupted by Holli Vallade, then vice chair for the Monroe County GOP: “I just don’t like the idea of us, you know, discussing the details of decisions that her daughter might have made in her life in her early 20s. I just don’t think that’s relevant to the situation with Jamie.”
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Republican lawmaker tries to end ‘drama’ with Downriver colleague
Reporting by Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
