Who are those intransigent House members behind the government shutdown? Meet Rep. Kerry Bentivolio.
Chris Hayes introduces you to ‘The Suicide Caucus’
Who are those intransigent House members behind the government shutdown?
On August 21, 80 members of Congress signed a letter authored by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) demanding the House defund Obamacare in exchange for passing a clean CR.
Meet Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-MI), a man whose brother called him “mentally unbalanced.” . Before he was a congressman for Michigan’s 11th district he ran a home building business. As MSNBC’s Chris Hayes reports, at one point there were 16 court cases involving Bentivolio and his creditors. Eventually he filed for bankruptcy.
After going bankrupt Bentivolio reinvented himself by becoming a mall Santa Claus.
Bentivolio excelled so much at asking kids if they were naughty or nice that in 1992 President George H.W. Bush invited the now congressman to play Santa at the annual tree lighting ceremony at the White House.
Bentivolio never made it to Washington. A creditor found out about his plans and alerted the White House of his sketchy past.
What did Bentivolio do then? He sued the creditor.
