Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, announced on Sunday that she will support Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, for the position of House speaker if the GOP wins back the majority in the 2023 midterm elections. Mace, who voted to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy as the minority leader last week, praised Jordan as an “honest man” and a “workhorse” who will put people ahead of politics.
However, when asked by CBS’s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan about the allegations that Jordan ignored sexual abuse by a team doctor when he was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University from 1987 to 1995, Mace claimed that she was not familiar or aware of the issue. She said that Jordan was not indicted on anything and that she could not speak to that. She also said that she was a strong voice for women and a strong advocate for rape victims.
Mace’s endorsement of Jordan contradicts her own professed support for victims of sexual assault, as she revealed in 2019 that she was raped when she was 16 years old and that her experience shaped her views on abortion rights. She also said that she was working on a bill with Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee to address the backlog of unprocessed rape kits.
Jordan faces multiple accusations of turning a blind eye to abuse
Jordan has been accused by several former wrestlers of knowing about and failing to stop the sexual abuse by Dr. Richard Strauss, who worked as a team doctor for various sports at Ohio State University for two decades. Strauss allegedly abused at least 177 students, according to an independent investigation released by the university in 2019. Strauss died by suicide in 2005.
Jordan has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the abuse and said that he would have acted if he had known. However, at least six former wrestlers have contradicted his claims and said that Jordan was aware of the abuse but did nothing to stop it. One of them, Adam DiSabato, testified in 2020 that Jordan called him crying and begging him to go against his brother, Mike DiSabato, who was one of the first whistleblowers on the scandal.
Jordan has also been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by some of the victims against the university, alleging that he and other officials failed to protect them from Strauss. The lawsuit is still pending in federal court.
Jordan is also implicated in the January 6 insurrection
Jordan’s bid for speaker is not only tainted by his role in the Ohio State abuse scandal, but also by his involvement in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Jordan was one of the leading figures in spreading former President Donald Trump’s lies about election fraud and objecting to the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
Jordan was also reportedly in contact with Trump on January 6 and tried to persuade him to call off his supporters who stormed the Capitol. However, he has refused to disclose the details of his conversation with Trump or testify before the House select committee investigating the attack.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, who was ousted from her leadership position by McCarthy for speaking out against Trump, warned Republicans not to elect Jordan as speaker because he was “the person who may well have been a material witness to events that led to” January 6.
