{"id":603,"date":"2017-10-05T11:36:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T15:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=603"},"modified":"2018-03-11T11:43:14","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T15:43:14","slug":"gop-rep-tim-murphy-resigning-after-reports-of-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=603","title":{"rendered":"GOP Rep. Tim Murphy resigning after reports of affair"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"lead-media\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lead-media__media imagetargeting\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/c.o0bg.com\/rf\/image_960w\/Boston\/2011-2020\/2017\/10\/05\/BostonGlobe.com\/Politics\/Images\/93c9822f486f4ea18210a0d3e24d7cbf-93c9822f486f4ea18210a0d3e24d7cbf-0.jpg?ssl=1\" sizes=\"(min-width:960px) 800px, 100vw\" srcset=\"\/\/c.o0bg.com\/rf\/image_960w\/Boston\/2011-2020\/2017\/10\/05\/BostonGlobe.com\/Politics\/Images\/93c9822f486f4ea18210a0d3e24d7cbf-93c9822f486f4ea18210a0d3e24d7cbf-0.jpg 960w, \/\/c.o0bg.com\/rf\/image_835w\/Boston\/2011-2020\/2017\/10\/05\/BostonGlobe.com\/Politics\/Images\/93c9822f486f4ea18210a0d3e24d7cbf-93c9822f486f4ea18210a0d3e24d7cbf-0.jpg 835w, \/\/c.o0bg.com\/rf\/image_460w\/Boston\/2011-2020\/2017\/10\/05\/BostonGlobe.com\/Politics\/Images\/93c9822f486f4ea18210a0d3e24d7cbf-93c9822f486f4ea18210a0d3e24d7cbf-0.jpg 460w\" alt=\"Representative Tim Murphy. \" \/><figcaption class=\"lead-media__info\">\n<div class=\"lead-media__credit\">ANDREW HARNIK\/AP\/FILE<\/div>\n<div class=\"lead-media__caption\">Representative Tim Murphy.<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"article-header__byline article-header__byline--article\"><span class=\"article-header__byline-author\">By Andrew Taylor and Marc Levy<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"article-header__byline-role\">ASSOCIATED PRESS\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><time class=\"article-header__pubdate\" datetime=\"2017-10-05 20:10\">OCTOBER 05, 2017<\/time><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Republican Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, an anti-abortion lawmaker who allegedly urged his mistress to have an abortion when he thought she was pregnant, is resigning from Congress.<\/p>\n<p>House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on Thursday announced Murphy\u2019s plans to leave Congress, effective Oct. 21. The decision comes less than 24 hours after Murphy said he would retire at the end of his term next year.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2018It was Dr. Murphy\u2019s decision to move on to the next chapter of his life, and I support it,\u2019\u2019 Ryan said in a statement. \u2018\u2018We thank him for his many years of tireless work on mental health issues here in Congress and his service to the country as a naval reserve officer.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Murphy\u2019s downfall came quickly, within days of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette publishing text messages between the married congressman and Shannon Edwards.<\/p>\n<p>A Jan. 25 text message from Edwards told the congressman he had \u2018\u2018zero issue posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,\u2019\u2019 according to the newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>A text message from Murphy\u2019s number in response said his staff was responsible for his anti-abortion messages: \u2018\u2018I\u2019ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don\u2019t write any more.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Edwards, it turned out, wasn\u2019t pregnant. Murphy recently acknowledged his affair with Edwards, which became public as a result of her divorce proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>The newspaper\u2019s revelation came as the House on Tuesday approved Republican legislation that would make it a crime to perform an abortion after 20 weeks of fetal development. Murphy, a member of the House Pro-Life Caucus, is among the bill\u2019s co-sponsors and voted for it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-ad inline-ad--bordered inline-ad-2\">\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">On Wednesday, Murphy announced he would not seek re-election, saying he would \u2018\u2018take personal time to seek help as my family and I continue to work through our personal difficulties.\u2019\u2019<\/span>Ryan said he supports the resignation.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2018I\u2019ve spoken to Tim quite a bit the last few days,\u2019\u2019 Ryan told reporters at an event in Chestertown, Maryland. \u2018\u2018I think it\u2019s appropriate he move on to the next chapter in his life.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is empowered to set a date for a special election to fill the seat.<\/p>\n<p>The Post-Gazette also published a six-page memo apparently written by Murphy\u2019s congressional chief of staff and dated June 8, in which she accused Murphy of subjecting his staff members to \u2018\u2018threats, hostility, anger and harassment.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Neither Murphy nor his office has commented on the newspaper report.<\/p>\n<p>Murphy is serving his eighth term representing a district in southwestern Pennsylvania, including parts of suburban Pittsburgh. The district is a safe Republican seat, with Republican Donald Trump beating Democrat Hillary Clinton by a margin of 3-to-2 in last November\u2019s presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>Murphy, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, was uncontested in his re-election bid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANDREW HARNIK\/AP\/FILE Representative Tim Murphy. By Andrew Taylor and Marc Levy\u00a0ASSOCIATED PRESS\u00a0\u00a0OCTOBER 05, 2017 WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Republican Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, an anti-abortion&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-family"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-11_11-41-21.jpg?fit=788%2C567&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8VBh7-9J","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":258,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=258","url_meta":{"origin":603,"position":0},"title":"Oregon GOP supports Kruse, accused of sex misconduct, remaining in Senate while investigation underway","author":"Donnie","date":"November 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Updated\u00a0Nov 28, 2017;\u00a0Posted\u00a0Nov 28, 2017 Sen. 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