“It didn’t say, ‘Hey baby I love you so much and I’d like to spent the rest of my life with you. ... You kiss me. ... I love that. You know I do love that. You know what, when I stand behind you and I put my arms around you and I put my hands on your breasts and I put my hands on you and just pull you in really close. I love that, too.”
The governor in a news conference last week said that he did not have a “physical affair” with Mason and there was no “sexual activity.”
“I made a mistake. Two years ago I made a mistake,” Bentley said.
The governor’s press office issued a statement this week saying, “The Governor has accepted responsibility for his behavior. He has apologized to his family, Rebekah Mason’s family and the people of Alabama for his inappropriate behavior on the recordings.
Although most high-ranking Republicans have taken a measured reaction to Bentley’s admission, the fallout from the scandal does not appear to be over. Rep. Ed Henry, R-Hartselle, said Wednesday that he plans to introduce the impeachment resolution when the Alabama Legislature returns from spring break next week.
“There’s no credibility. There’s no confidence from the legislature or the people of this state in his office and his abilities,” Henry said.
The governor’s press office did not have an immediate response.
Henry and Bentley are both Republicans who have frequently clashed over the past two years, including over the governor’s proposal last year to raise taxes.
However, Henry acknowledged the resolution faces an uphill climb. A majority of House members would have to vote to begin proceedings.
Mason, a former television news anchor in Bentley’s hometown of Tuscaloosa, signed on as spokeswoman for the little-known legislator’s 2010 longshot bid for governor. She worked as the governor’s communications adviser before leaving to work on his 2014 re-election.
Observers said Mason helped the governor talk through options as he weighed decisions ranging from taking down Confederate flags to his proposed $800 million prison construction project before lawmakers.
Her detractors within the administration said her opinion increasingly became the only one Bentley would trust.
“At the end of 2014, Governor Bentley made it clear to me in no uncertain terms that from that point forward anyone who questioned Rebekah’s influence would be fired,” Collier said.
As his senior political adviser, she was not paid by the state. Instead, she was paid with campaign funds — something the governor’s office said Bentley had done with previous political advisers in his administration.
Campaign records show Bentley’s campaign paid Mason’s company, RCM Communications, $76,500 in 2015 for consulting and travel reimbursement. Mason disclosed last week that the Alabama Council for Government Excellence, a nonprofit formed to promote Bentley’s agenda, also paid her company $15,000 for consulting work.
Mason’s husband also works for Bentley as the director of Serve Alabama, the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Volunteer Service.
In a statement issued last week, she said Bentley “apologized to me and to my family, we accepted his apology and have put all of this behind us.”
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