'New Day' Exclusive: DNA test proves congressman not model's father
Updated at 2:06 p.m. ET, 7/19
(CNN) – "Overwhelming, crazy, stressful."
That's how Victoria Brink describes her life the last few months. She's the woman who had a Twitter conversation with Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee during this year's State of the Union speech.
The back-and-forth forced the congressman to admit this was no tawdry tete-a-tete with a much younger woman. Victoria Brink – an aspiring model - was in fact his daughter, he said.
The revelation forced their new relationship into the public. But in a single tweet during the State of the Union, the then 23-year-old's life turned inside out.
"What was out on the internet was that me and Steve Cohen could have been lovers or we had some kind of relationship," she told CNN in an interview that aired on "New Day."
Enter Houston oilman John Brink, who always assumed Victoria was his daughter. Victoria and the congressman had kept their secret from everyone for three years.
"It was very hard to keep a secret like that," Victoria Brink said.
Until the State of the Union Tweet-gate forced her to come clean.
"We met up and I told my dad. We cried and he said, 'No matter what I love you. You're my daughter.'"
But amazingly enough, Rep. Cohen never had proof that Brink was his daughter.
"I knew her mother a long time ago," Cohen said. "I Googled her one night, and saw that she had given birth to a beautiful young lady, and I kind of went back to nine months before, and that was a time when we were involved."
Victoria's mom took no part in this story, but says she has a good relationship with Victoria. But there was never any hard proof - like a DNA test – that Cohen was her father until now.
CNN was present when Victoria and the man who raised her, John Brink, took the DNA test, which they initiated and paid for on their own, on May 30th. Victoria later provided CNN with a copy of the results that showed Cohen was not her biological father.
The results showed that Cohen was not Victoria Brink's father - and that John Brink was.
In a statement the congressman said "I was stunned and dismayed" at the result.
"I still love Victoria, hold dear the time I have shared with her and hope to continue to be part of her life," he said.
Correction: In a previous version, CNN incorrectly reported the circumstances of the DNA testing. In fact, CNN was simply present when DNA was obtained from Victoria and John Brink, which they initiated and paid for on their own.
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? if this does not prove the rep is mentally unstable and not worthy of public office what would? who makes claims they are someone's father? let me guess, just because he talked to her mother 9 months before the birth, he believed he was the father because....thats how babies are created????????????
bias always working the angle...
Sounds like a great publicity stunt to me!!!!
duh....you need to read closer....
I kind of went back to nine months before, and that was a time when we were involved."
none of this makes sense
What is a Rep. without scandal?
I notice it didn't say that Brink was the dad.
And this is why the private lives of politicians should stay private. There is absolutely no need for a personal drama like this to unfold in the public eye while self appointed experts on comment boards wax poetic about what they think on the matter.
Badly written! Who then is her father?
Why do fell he's a democrat? I know, becuz they keep calling him representative in this article without ONCE naming his party. If he were a republican it would be "Republican Cohen, republican rep, republic etc.." The fact they refuse to say ibis party says it all.
From an earlier story, when Cohen confronted the mother she told him and her daughter that Cohen was the father. For three years both Cohen and the young woman believed they were father and daughter.
Seriously, why is this news? Shouldn't Maury handle this on one of his shows?
Read the Texas law, Rudy. Specifically Section 171.045 – EXCEPTIONS.
Why put this story up at all? There's things growing out of sidewalk cracks that have more importance than this garbage.
Tony – Steve Cohen is a Democrat. What was your point again?
@Billy Shears: I looked it up to be sure... yup, you were right! Pathetic, isn't it?
Wow Republicans are hell-bent on latching on to any evidence of scandal, whether it's real (Maxine Waters' husband's financial ties), fake (Benghazi, IRS, everything other than NSA scandal that they're complicit in), or nonsensical (Cohen not having a daughter after saying he had one). This is why so many people – even those with no love for Democrats – laugh at y'all.
OK, what the heck, I'll claim her, and we are moving to Alabama.
Billy shears, What does his party affiliation have to do with this article?
He is a Democrat. There is no reason to suspect that he should have known that he wasn't the father based on the story. Now this whole matter should be left alone. You know like it should have been left alone from the beginning.
The story, by omission, implies that neither of the lucky lads to have had this "lady" are the father. Sounds like a third lucky man who is as yet unnamed is the girls father. A mindless story about an incredibly naïve, almost stupid congressman, an equally dim Houston Oilman and a mother who apparently couldn't keep her legs closed and is clueless as to who among the many is actually her daughters father. Too bad for Victoria. maybe it's time to talk to Mom and get a list of the possibles so that she can track down Daddy. No role models for the model.
What a confusingly written story.
So, all it is saying is that they thought that Cohen MIGHT have been her father but all it really tells us us that Cohen and her mother had sex for awhile about twenty four years ago.
It is a shame that something as private and personal as this has been trotted out on the national stage in an attempt to find a scandal. I don't care what anyone's politics are, I wish the best of luck to all parties as they figure out their new relationships - both by blood and by choice. Hopefully they all have open enough minds and hearts to recognize that their individual worlds are better for adding people, rather than rejecting them.
Maury Povich should have written this article
CNN channeling their inner Povich.