King on Kavanaugh Allegation: If Taken Seriously, “No Man Will Ever Qualify for the Supreme Court Again”

The congressman made the remarks Saturday at an Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition fundraiser headlined by his colleague Jim Jordan, who has been accused of covering up sexual abuse at Ohio State

Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Congressman Steve King was one of the featured speakers at yesterday’s annual Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner in Windsor Heights, where he dismissed the sexual assault allegation against President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as “character assassination” and suggested this would become the new norm if the Senate doesn’t confirm him.

“They are surely attempting to thwart Justice Kavanaugh,” King told the audience of social conservatives. “Look at the allegations made by a sole individual, who doesn’t remember the residence, the house, the names of the owners of this house, who else was at the place, except for one person who says it didn’t happen. How can you disprove something like that?”

King continued: “You add all of that together and I’m thinking, is there any man in this room that wouldn’t be subjected to such an allegation? A false allegation? How can you disprove something like that? Which means, if that’s the new standard, no man will ever qualify for the Supreme Court again.”

The event’s keynote speaker was King’s House colleague Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who was invited despite an ongoing scandal involving allegations that he failed to report sexual abuse by a team doctor when he was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University. In July, Jordan became one of three people mentioned by name in a class-action lawsuit filed against the university.

At the time, Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition President Steve Scheffler falsely told the Des Moines Register that Jordan had “disproved” the allegations against him and suggested he was the victim of the so-called Deep State conspiracy theory.

Jeremy Davis, a former Ames City Council member and King district representative who is running on the GOP ticket for state treasurer, tweeted a photo of Jordan from the event:

After initially resisting, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley agreed to hold another hearing so that Kavanaugh and the woman who said he attempted to rape her during a high school party, Palo Alto University professor Christine Blasey Ford, could address the allegation. Grassley originally scheduled the new hearing for Monday, but after Ford’s lawyers said that wasn’t enough time for her to prepare, the committee agreed to a Thursday hearing over the weekend.

Gavin Aronsen
Gavin Aronsen is an editor and reporter for and founding member of the Iowa Informer. He previously worked as a city reporter for the Ames Tribune, research assistant to investigative journalist Wayne Barrett at the Village Voice, and in various roles at Mother Jones, where his work contributed to a National Magazine Award nomination for the magazine's digital media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Email: garonsen [at] iowainformer [dot] com.