Jim Jordan Had a ‘Real Opportunity to Fight For Us,’ ‘All He’s Done Is Turn His Back on Us,’ Fmr Wrestler Says
Republican speaker hopeful's past as a coach at issue
When Rep Elise Stefanik, of New York, officially nominated fellow Republican, Rep Jim Jordan of Ohio for speaker of the US House of Representatives, she called him a fighter, and going so far as to recall Jordan's days as a college wrestling coach referred to him as a voice for the “voiceless.”
Wrestlers at Ohio State University when Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach there, like William Knight, might disagree.
Today, Jordan is a prominent, far-right congressman in a northcentral Ohio district who is a staunch ally of Donald Trump's and as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, become a fierce antagonist towards President Biden and his administration.
He's also now seeking to replace Rep Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) as speaker, although he failed in a first attempt at that effort by more than a dozen votes Tuesday.
But from 1986 through 1994, Jordan was an assistant coach at Ohio State, where he has been accused over the years of having ignored molestation allegations against the team’s doctor, Richard Strauss.
Knight was one of Jordan’s wrestlers who today question his judgement and ability as a fighter.
Jordan has denied that he knew anything about the allegations, but others say that is not true.
“The funny thing is that when people always call Jim Jordan fighter, I always wonder who is he fighting for, because he had a real opportunity to fight for us and the people that he coached, and people he recruited at the Ohio State, and all he has done is just turn his back on us. So I don’t know what the fighter thing is,” Knight said, in an on-camera interview with CNN. “I know he used to be a fighter. I know he used to be a good wrestler. But he is not a good fighter for anyone else that I know of.”
Please support our work…
Please subscribe…