Craig read a statement and took no questions during the short news conference concerning his June 2007 arrest. Craig denies being gay, regrets guilty plea

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) denied that he is gay at a Boise press conference on Tuesday, and said he regretted that he pled guilty to “disorderly conduct” at a Minneapolis airport in June.

“I am not gay. I never have been gay,” Craig said. “I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct. I chose to plead guilty to a lesser charge in hopes of making it go away,” Craig said.


Craig was arrested on June 11 in a men’s bathroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after he attempted to solicit sexual favors with an undercover police officer, according to a police report. Two months later, he pled guilty to disorderly conduct, was fined and was placed on unsupervised probation for more than a year.

Craig, who was first elected to the Senate in 1990, gave no hint whether he will be seeking a fourth term, only saying he will be making that decision next month.

Craig apologized to his family, friends, staff and fellow Idahoans for “the cloud placed over Idaho.” He said he overreacted by pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, and reiterated that he did “nothing wrong” in Minneapolis.

He also lashed out at his hometown paper, the Idaho Statesman, for playing a role in his guilty plea in June.

“Without a shred of truth or evidence to the contrary, the Statesman has engaged in this witchhunt,” Craig said. “In pleading guilty, I overreacted in Minneapolis because of the stress the Idaho Statesman investigation and the rumors it has fueled all around Idaho.”

The newspaper published an in-depth report Tuesday, alleging previous incidents of homosexual conduct between Craig and three unnamed men over the last several decades. “The Statesman also explored dozens of allegations that proved untrue, unclear or unverifiable,” it reported.

The newspaper had withheld publishing the story until Roll Call's report of Craig's guilty plea Monday.

Meanwhile, the Senate GOP leadership called for an ethics committee investigation into what it called a “serious matter.”

“Due to the reported and disputed circumstances, and the legal resolution of this serious case, we will recommend that Sen. Craig’s incident be reported to the Senate Ethics Committee for its review," it said in a statement signed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Minority Whip Trent Lott (Miss.), GOP Conference Chair Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Public Policy Committee Chairwoman Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas), and NRSC Chairman John Ensign (Nev.)

Some conservative groups and commentators are already calling for his resignation. The Idaho Values Alliance said in a statement that it “strains credulity to think that the senator can provide an explanation for his guilty plea.”

Conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt wrote on his website yesterday that “Craig's behavior is so reckless and repulsive that an immediate exit is required.”

Idaho Republican Party Chairman J. Kirk Sullivan issued a statement after Craig’s speech urging Idahoans to “avoid rushing to judgment and making brash statements about a man who has dedicated his life to public service.”