Four Former Ohio State University Wrestlers Say Jim Jordan Shouldn't Be Speaker Of The House
On Tuesday, four of the former Ohio State University wrestlers who have accused Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of failing to protect them from a sexual predator when he was the team’s assistant coach in the 1980s and ‘90s said he has no business being the next speaker of the House.
“Do you really want a guy in that job who chose not to stand up for his guys?” said former Ohio State University wrestler Mike Schyck, one of the hundreds of former athletes and students who say they were sexually abused by school doctor Richard Strauss and have sued the university. “Is that the kind of character trait you want for a House speaker?”
Jordan is running for the speakership after the historic ousting of Kevin McCarthy by eight disgruntled right-wing Republicans last week. Jordan, a notoriously far-right Republican, has secured the endorsement of Donald Trump, Lauren Boebert, and other members of the most extreme flank of the GOP.
Before entering politics, Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University from 1986 to 1994. Former athletes have accused Jordan of ignoring allegations and failing to protect them from sexual abuse by school doctor Richard Strauss.
Jordan has long denied helping orchestrate a cover-up. But Jordan also refused to co-operate with an official investigation which found Strauss’s abuse was an “open secret”, and that “coaches, trainers and other team physicians were fully aware of Strauss’ activities, and yet few seemed inclined to do anything to stop it”.
At one hearing, another former wrestler, Adam DiSabato, said: “Jim Jordan called me crying, crying, groveling, on the Fourth of July … begging me to go against my brother, begging me, crying for half an hour. That’s the kind of cover-up that’s going on here. He’s a coward. He’s a coward.”
Yetts has previously said: “If Jordan says he didn’t know about it, then he’s lying.”
The lingering scandal has not stopped Jordan in his political tracks so far, and it likely won’t stop his run to be Speaker of the House. Last weekend, Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy, told CBS she supported Jordan for Speaker. When Mace was asked about the Ohio State scandal she said she was “not familiar or aware” of it adding: “He’s not indicted on anything that I’m aware of. I don’t know anything and can’t speak to that.”
This wouldn’t be the first time the GOP backed someone with this kind of baggage, and unfortunately for all of us, it likely won’t be the last.
