Immediately after three ex-Ohio State University wrestlers accused then-assistant coach, now-powerful Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of helping to cover up sexual abuse of team athletes, another OSU wrestler has come forward to NBC News to confirm Jordan knew about that sexual abuse at the time.
"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 says he is a Republican and a Jordan, but calls Jordan's continued denials of the abuse "hurtful." If history is any guide, other witnesses will feel emboldened to come forward as well with their own stories as well.
In a fit of wonderfully bad timing, this additional confirmation of Jordan's silence in the face of sexual abuse comes simultaneously with a new Trump statement of support for Rep. Jordan:
"I don’t believe them at all. I believe him. Jim Jordan is one of the most outstanding people I’ve met since I’ve been in Washington. I believe him 100 percent."
Trump has been accused of sexual assault by at least nineteen women; the White House continues to insist that all of those women are lying about their own experiences with Trump, and the Trump White House today confirmed that former Fox News president Bill Shine, who according to multiple lawsuits helped cover up sexual harassment by Fox head Roger Ailes during his tenure and who was forced to resign due to those acts, was joining the administration as deputy communications chief. His abilities to judge Jim Jordan's character and vouch for him may, it turns out, be suspect.