A total of seven former Ohio State University wrestlers have now accused Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of knowing about allegations that team doctor Richard Strauss had sexually assaulted players in the 1980s and '90s, when Jordan was an assistant coach, following an initial report from NBC last week in which three athletes spoke out on the issue. Jordan has simultaneously denied the charges while also trying to downplay them, saying, "Conversations in a locker room are a lot different than people coming up and talking about abuse."
But when pressed by Fox News' Bret Baier as to whether his players had ever told him about anything "short of abuse that may be considered abuse now in this current time," Jordan also insisted he "did not, did not" ever hear anything of the sort. So no one ever reported any abuse to him, but locker room conversations are different from abuse allegations, but he never encountered any such locker room talk anyway.
That might seem like an impossible line to walk, but Jordan has concocted a conspiracy theory to dismiss his many accusers, saying, "I think the timing is suspect when you think about how this whole story came together after the Rosenstein hearing and the speaker's race." (Jordan is a possible candidate to succeed retiring Rep. Paul Ryan as the leader of the House GOP.)
Jordan can probably continue to play things this way for as long as he likes: Donald Trump immediately gave the congressman his full support, and members of the House Freedom Caucus, which Jordan co-founded, are also standing with him. Despite the scandal, Jordan is almost certain to win re-election this fall (his district voted for Trump by an overwhelming margin), and he doesn't face another primary for almost two years. And as Trump's example has shown, Republican voters might not care anyway.