Last Call For Bevin's Cock-Up

As if Matt Bevin needed any more problems being down 20 points to somebody as despised as Mitch McConnell is, he just got caught by Louisville NBC station WAVE reporter John Boel at a rally for cockfighting, a sport that's been illegal in the Bluegrass State for decades, but where the cops all look the other way.

It's not popular to a lot of people in Kentucky. On March 29, "activist cockfighters" were summoned through social media to the Corbin Arena for a meeting to legalize cockfigting. So I put on a cockfighting shirt and went in undercover. The second speaker, American Gamefowl Defense Director Dave Devereaux, spent several minutes explaining why we were here.

"For the sole purpose of legalizing gamecock fighting at the state level," said Devereaux.

The next speaker, in front of more than 700 people, was Republican US Senate Candidate Matt Bevin.

"There is not a cause, there is not an issue, nothing we believe in that we could not bring to fruition if we turn out to vote," said Bevin.

When he was finished, he was asked a direct question.

"Will you vote to support the effort to legalize gamecock fighting in the state of Kentucky?" asked Devereaux.

"I support the people of Kentucky exercising their right, because it is our right to decide what it is that we want to do, and not the federal government's. Criminalizing behavior, if it's part of the heritage of this state, is in my opinion a bad idea. A bad idea. I will not support it," said Bevin, which was met with rousing applause from the crowd.

So when Boel confronted Bevin with the tape of Bevin at the cockfighting rally, he did what any Republican would do.  He lied about it.

We caught up with Bevin at a Louisville campaign stop. He said he didn't know it was a cockfighting rally.

"I don't personally support cockfighting, never been to a cockfight in my life," he said. "If you were there, you can tell, when I was speaking, were you there when I spoke?"

"I was there the whole time," I said.

"I was there to speak about why I'm running for US Senate. That's the same thing I do everywhere I speak," Bevin said.

"When Dave Devereaux got up before you, he said we're here for the sole purpose of talking about legalizing cockfighting in Kentucky. What were you thinking when he said that?" I asked.

"I honestly wasn't even paying attention. I was thinking about what I was going to say. I don't even remember him saying that," Bevin said.

I read him back his comment from the rally: "Criminalizing behavior, if it's part of the heritage of this state, is in my opinion a bad idea."

"You stand behind that?" I asked.

"What I stand behind is people's ability to examine their First Amendment rights to speak about whatever they want to speak about," Bevin said.

 He wasn't paying attention to the fact he was at a cockfighting rally.  Sure.  You know what?  I expect politicians to lie.  But to lie badly, and just pretend the video evidence was somehow not showing Bevin is so desperately losing to an ass like Mitch right now that he's trying to go for the "legalize cockfighting" vote?

That's just insulting.  You know what?  I hope he beats McConnell, because Alison Lundergan Grimes will beat the guy by 30 points after this.  Sadly, McConnell is having the best week he's had in months because of this.

“Matt Bevin’s cockfighting episode will go down in history as one of the most disqualifying moments in Kentucky political history,” McConnell spokeswoman Allison Moore said in a statement. “Twenty years from now, we will all remember the time when the East Coast con-man thought so little of Kentuckians that he pathologically lied to us about absolutely everything until an undercover camera caught him red-handed at a cockfighting rally.”

This is something that even Mitch the Turtle wouldn't stoop to, and that tells you everything you need to know about the hole Bevin is in right now.