‘Love Child’ Plot Thickens for Jewish Lawmaker

Image by twitter

By Yermi Brenner July 19, 2013

Victoria Brink Image by twitter

The plot thickens and the drama continues in the weird case of the Jewish lawmaker who claimed fatherhood of a bikini model — then found out he wasn’t the real dad.

A day after a DNA test proved that Rep. Steve Cohen was not genetically related to Victoria Brink, the young woman’s real father said he knew he was the dad all along and never bought the Tennessee Democrat’s original paternity claim.

In an interview with POLITICO, John Brink, ex-husband of Victoria’s mother, Texas lawyer Cynthia Sinatra, said he was not even aware that his ex-wife knew the Tennessee Democrat. He added that he holds no grudge towards Cohen and does not plan on contacting him.

“How could I get mad at him? I don’t see it as his fault, I see it as my ex-wife’s fault,” Brink, president of Houston-based Environment & Energy Group, told Politico.

Brink married Sinatra in 1985 and the couple divorced in 1989. Victoria was born in 1988. In a CNN segment that aired Thursday morning, a paternity test revealed that John Brink is the actual father, not Cohen.

Caitlin Huey-Burns Image by twitter

Cohen and Brink first made headlines last winter when the congressman, a lifelong bachelor, Tweeted at the willowy Brink during President Obama’s State of the Union address. When reporters questioned the familiar tone of his message to the attractive younger woman, Cohen explained that he had found out a few years ago that he was Brink’s father.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Cohen stuck his foot in his mouth again.

Yesterday, RealClearPolitics reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns tweeted that when she contacted Cohen for a comment on the story, he replied: “You’re very attractive, but I’m not talking about it.”

Huey-Burns later tweeted again saying that after her initial tweet, Cohen approached her and apologized for his comment, saying that it is a “difficult and personal time” for him. Indeed.

Just asked Rep. Cohen about the paternity test developments and he told me: “You’re very attractive, but I’m not talking about it.”

ampmdash; Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurnsRCP) July 18, 2013

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email [email protected].

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO