We have another former member of Ohio State’s wrestling team coming forward about alleged sexual abuse, and also saying that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) knew about it. As of now, we have four former members of the school’s wrestling team alleging that then-assistant coach Jordan knew about the abuse going on at the hands of the team doctor, Dr. Richard Strauss. Strauss committed suicide in 2005. Jordan has denied the allegations (via NBC News):
A fourth former Ohio State University wrestler came forward Thursday to contradict Rep. Jim Jordan’s claim that he had no idea the wrestling team doctor was molesting athletes.
The wrestler, Shawn Dailey, said he was groped half a dozen times by Dr. Richard Strauss in the mid-1990s, when Jordan was the assistant wrestling coach. Dailey said he was too embarrassed to report the abuse directly to Jordan at the time, but he said Jordan took part in conversations where Strauss' abuse of many other team members came up.
"I participated with Jimmy [Jordan] and the other wrestlers in locker-room talk about Strauss. We all did," Dailey, 43, told NBC News. "It was very common knowledge in the locker room that if you went to Dr. Strauss for anything, you would have to pull your pants down.”
Dailey spoke out two days after NBC News reported that three former wrestlers who were coached by Jordan more than two decades ago accused the GOP congressman of turning a blind eye to Strauss' alleged abuse and then lying about it. Jordan denied knowing anything about the abuse and continues to do so.
A couple of them had reported run-ins with law enforcement. NBC News and The Columbus Dispatch touched upon two other accusers' past legal issues. Dunyasha Yetts served an 18-month prison sentence for fraud. Mike DiSabato sold OSU gear and lost his contract with the school to sell their merchandise. There's also been a legal battle over licensing. So, even with the denials, can Jordan survive?
We’re in the Me Too moment here. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) have been booted from Congress over past allegations of sexual misconduct. Jordan hasn’t been accused of abuse, but knowing and doing nothing allegedly will be taken as just as bad. Now, we have four stories noting as much. The media coverage against Conyers and Franken was relentless and coupled with pressure from within the Democratic Party—they had to leave. A lot of it was due to political maneuvering. The Democrats were unable to attack Republican Roy Moore in Alabama’s special Senate election effectively without having Conyers and Franken come up; Moore had allegations of sexual misconduct from his past. It also came at a time when some liberal feminists wondered if they were wrong to give Bill Clinton a pass during his presidency.
The gutting of Conyers and Franken was due to politics. We don’t have that with Jordan. There are no pictures of him allegedly mock groping a sleeping woman, like we did with Franken. And I think it's a safe bet that Democrats wouldn't have applied pressure if there wasn't a winnable special election south of the Mason-Dixon line thanks to the candidacy of a shoddy Republican.
Still, while there aren’t multiple accounts of people saying Jordan himself acted inappropriately. An allegation about whether Jordan knew as an assistant coach about members of the wrestling team being abused and not doing anything about it while at OSU between 1986-1994 is still not good. Yes, there are no special elections going on, but Jordan is a conservative Republican. Any allegation like this is blood in the water for Democrats and the liberal news media. We’ll see if he’s able to tread water, but you can bet the Left is going to try to push this as hard as they can to force him out. Jordan is tough, but we’ll see what happens.
