Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, eh?
Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn on Saturday stepped down as Republican National Committee finance chairman, according to three senior Republicans briefed on the decision.The decision followed a Friday report in the Wall Street Journal alleging that Wynn engaged in sexual harassment.
Wynn, 76, was President Donald Trump’s handpicked choice for the finance position. It has not yet been determined who will replace him.
“Today I accepted Steve Wynn’s resignation as Republican National Committee finance chair,” said RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, who spoke about the Wynn situation with the president on Saturday morning, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation. Trump returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday evening.
Wynn has had a long relationship with the president, himself a former casino owner. After the 2016 election, Trump tapped the Las Vegas Republican to oversee the RNC’s fundraising heading into a perilous midterm election for the party. Last Saturday, Wynn headlined a fundraiser for the president’s reelection campaign and the RNC at Trump’s posh Mar a Lago resort.
During recent fundraising events — including one recent one in New York City — Wynn has praised Trump as a history-changing president in the mold of Lincoln and Reagan.
Of course, if certain rumors are true, Trump might have more similarities to Warren Harding. In any event, it’s good to see that Wynn is facing the consequences for his alleged actions–and there could be more consequences in store:
Accusations of sexual misconduct against billionaire Las Vegas gambling magnate Steve Wynn on Friday quickly triggered a review by the enforcement arm of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, the powerful panel with broad legal authority to decide who is suitable to hold a state casino license.
The company Wynn runs, Wynn Resorts, is building the centerpiece of Massachusetts’ new casino industry, a $2.4 billion gambling palace on the Mystic River in Everett, with views of the Boston skyline and high expectations for the millions of dollars in state tax money it is expected to generate.
“The commission is now aware of and is taking very seriously the troubling allegations,” Elaine Driscoll, the gaming commission’s spokeswoman, said in a statement hours after a Wall Street Journal report outlined allegations of a pattern of sexual misconduct against Wynn, 76…
The commission does not conduct criminal inquiries and will not be investigating specific misconduct accusations against Wynn, who denied the allegations Friday. Massachusetts regulators will probably keep in close contact with their counterparts in Nevada and will track any developments with the accusations. The Everett casino, called Wynn Boston Harbor, is set to open in 2019.
Under Massachusetts law, character, reputation, and integrity are all elements of “suitability” to hold a casino license. Wynn Resorts and its key officials passed an extensive suitability review before the company won a state casino license in 2014.
Despite the disclaimer about the Massachusetts Gaming Commission not officially investigating specific claims of sleazy chauvinism, it’s hard to imagine the latest allegations against Wynn making things easy for him and his business in the Bay State in the #metoo era. One wonders if things will come up snake eyes for other prominent Trump allies this year…
