Jake Tapper Drolly Shades Jim Jordan With Brutal Reference To Wrestling Past
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CNN anchor Jake Tapper skewered Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Thursday with a droll reference to his days as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University.
Jordan has already tried and failed to get elected House speaker twice this week and considered bowing out on Thursday before vowing to push for a third vote.
So far, his attempts at winning the hearts of other House Republicans haven’t gone so well.
Jordan’s tweet on Wednesday suggesting party members “come together” and support him failed to convince GOP colleagues who have reported receiving anonymous and threatening messages for not backing the Ohio conservative.
On Thursday, Tapper was discussing the speaker debacle with reporter Melanie Zanona, who said she had spoken with House Republicans who thought Jordan “could have done way more to try to stand these conservative attacks down.”
She noted that Jordan supporters had also published the phone numbers of members of Congress who were on the fence so that voters could yell at them.
“That is why there is so much emotion now, and why the feelings are raw inside the Republican Party,” Zanona added.
Tapper responded with a deadpan crack at Jordan.
“If only there was something in his background that would suggest he would stand by and look away when bad things were going on,” he said.
Tapper: If only there was something in his background that would suggest he would stand by and look away when bad things were going on. pic.twitter.com/qeMKzAypL4
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 19, 2023
Tapper was making an oblique reference to accusations that Jordan ignored sexual abuse claims against Ohio State University team trainer Richard Strauss when Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at the school.
Strauss died in 2005, but a 2019 report revealed that he committed nearly 1,500 sexual assaults against student-patients from multiple sports programs at Ohio State.
Although Jordan has previously denied allegations that he knew what was going on and did nothing, former Ohio State wrestler Mike DiSabato said in 2018 that the lawmaker “is absolutely lying if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.”
Jordan’s former life as a wrestling coach continues to be an awkward reference point in his attempts to become House speaker.
Earlier this week, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) unwittingly brought up the Ohio State scandal during her speech when she called Jordan “the voice of the American people who have felt voiceless for far too long. Whether as judiciary chair, conservative leader, or representative for his constituents in West Central Ohio, whether on the wrestling mat or in the committee room, Jim Jordan is strategic, scrappy, tough and principled.”
Stefanik’s remarks earned gasps, not cheers, from many House members.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
