MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley admitted on Wednesday that he made inappropriate remarks to a top female staffer, but he denied accusations that he had a physical affair.
The governor’s admission capped a bizarre political day. A day after his firing, Bentley’s former law enforcement secretary and one-time close friend made public the content of a clandestine recording and accused his former boss of having an inappropriate relationship with the staffer. The recording was made by a family member before Bentley’s wife filed for divorce last year.
The two-term Republican governor, a former Baptist deacon, acknowledged in a conciliatory news conference that he said “some inappropriate things” to his senior political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.
“I made a mistake. Two years ago I made a mistake,” Bentley said, adding that he had previously apologized to his family and to Mason and her family. “Today I want to apologize to the people of the state of Alabama and once again, I want to apologize to my family. I am truly sorry, and I accept full responsibility.”
Former Law Enforcement Secretary Spencer Collier held a news conference Wednesday and said he heard a tape recording in 2014 in which Bentley made romantic and sexually charged comments to a woman he believed to be Mason.