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Republican congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio has been facing a growing onslaught of allegations that he was aware of, and ignored, the serial sexual assault of college wrestlers under his purview as assistant coach at Ohio State University in the 1980s and 1990s.
The victims estimate the the doctor could have assaulted as many as 2,000 college boys during his 20 year tenure at Ohio State.
For days, Jordan — a star of the far-right conservative family-values wing of the GOP who hopes to becoming Speaker next year — has flatly denied having any knowledge of the alleged crimes.
Today, Jordan’s story changed significantly.
In an interview with Fox News, Jordan implies that he now remembers being told of the allegations. But, incredibly, Jordan suggests that the reports of sexual assault were actual locker room talk, and thus not to be taken seriously. This totally contradicts Jordan’s denials from earlier this week.
Here’s what Jordan told Politico earlier this week:
“It’s not true,” Jordan said. “I never knew about any type of abuse. If I did, I would have done something about it. And look, if there are people who are abused, then that’s terrible and we want justice to happen.”
And here is what Jordan’s spokesperson told NBC earlier this week:
“Congressman Jordan never saw any abuse, never heard about any abuse, and never had any abuse reported to him during his time as a coach at Ohio State,” his spokesman, Ian Fury, said in an email to NBC News.
Both Jordan and his spokesman made it crystal clear that Jordan did not “know” of any abuse, nor had he heard “heard” of any abuse, or had any abuse “reported to him.”
Well, that story changed when Jordan went on Fox today. In this latest interview, now that five former college wrestlers have come forward to say that Jordan in fact did know about the abuse, Jordan invents his new “locker room talk” defense:
Actually, Congressman Jordan, when young boys under your purview tell you in a locker room that the team doctor is fondling their genitals when they see him for a sore throat, and that is happens every single time they visit his office, and that it’s happening to everyone they know, there’s actually no difference between that an allegation of abuse.
One doubts that Jim Jordan would consider it simply locker room talk if his sons told him, in a locker room, that their doctor was fondling them.
But regardless, Jordan and his spokesman made it perfectly clear that Jordan hadn’t “heard” about any abuse at all. Now Jordan is admitting that yes, in fact he did “hear” about the serial sexual assault, but since his wrestlers mentioned it to him in a “locker room,” somehow this vitiates their complaint.
They’re his wrestlers. He’s the wrestling coach. They live on the gym floor and in the locker room. Where are they supposed to tell their coach about abuse in order to be taken seriously?
Perhaps now the media, which has been loathe to report on this story, will now take it seriously.
You can hear much more background on this story in our latest UnPresidented Podcast, below:
The post BREAKING: GOP Rep Jim Jordan flip-flops on sexual assault claims. Admit may have heard something. appeared first on AMERICAblog News.
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