Anti-Trump super PAC buys sky-banner flights to demand Jim Jordan quit

A liberal political action committee is paying an Ohio sky banner company $8,000 to demand the resignation of Republican Rep. Jim Jordan as he fights accusations that he ignored a culture of sexual abuse while he was a wrestling coach at The Ohio State University.

The modernized Surrender Dorothy advertisement, paid for by the Mad Dog PAC, flew last week over the university and in Jordan’s district. On Wednesday it’s making two trips over Progressive Field during a Cleveland Indians game.

‘REP JIM JORDAN HID OSU SEX ABUSE. RESIGN NOW!’ the giant banner read on its maiden flights. Wednesday’s message was updated to include a shot at President Donald Trump but remove the word ‘abuse’: ‘REP JORDAN KNEW ABOUT SEX @ OSU! DUMP TRUMP TOO!’

Claude Taylor, the PAC’s founding director who described himself Wednesday as ‘primarily anti-Trump,’ promised more aerial combat to come.

The Mad Dog PAC, self-described as ‘anti-Trump,’ is paying for flying banner ads denouncing Republican Rep. Jim Jordan in his native Ohio, over claims he turned a blind eye to sexual abuse when he was a wrestling coach at The Ohio State University

Jordan has insisted he knew nothing about allegations that a team doctor groped student athletes in the 1980s and 1990s

Jordan has insisted he knew nothing about allegations that a team doctor groped student athletes in the 1980s and 1990s

Four 3-hour flights are costing between $7,000 and $8,000, and the PAC's leader says more will be coming unless Jordan quiets Congress

Four 3-hour flights are costing between $7,000 and $8,000, and the PAC’s leader says more will be coming unless Jordan quiets Congress

‘That’s just week one and week two, which is followed in due course by week three, and on and on until he resigns,’ Taylor told DailyMail.com. 

Some former wrestlers have come forward this summer to say team doctor Richard Strauss groped them during the 1980s and 1990s, and that Jordan, now 54, turned a blind eye while he was an assistant coach. 

Jordan told a Fox News Channel audience last week that he had never heard about the allegations and would have reported them if he had known.

‘I never saw, never heard of, never told of any kind of abuse,’ Jordan said. ‘We would have dealt with it if we knew of anything that happened.’ 

The liberal super PAC, whose spending in the 2018 election cycle has come out 98 per cent against Republicans, is targeting the six-term lawmaker at a time when former OSU wrestlers are beginning to publicly take his side.

A group of 14 of them told the Associated Press on Tuesday that they were in the dark about allegations against Strauss, and they all backed Jordan’s contention that he was too. Straus died in 2005. 

Letters attached to a  flexible frame are lined up in advance of the mission that the PAC calls 'Air Jordan'

Letters attached to a  flexible frame are lined up in advance of the mission that the PAC calls ‘Air Jordan’

Claude Taylor, the man behind the PAC that paid for the aeronautic advertising, won't disavow a claim he made last year that there was a sealed indictment charging President Donald Trump with a crime

Claude Taylor, the man behind the PAC that paid for the aeronautic advertising, won’t disavow a claim he made last year that there was a sealed indictment charging President Donald Trump with a crime

Dr. Richard Strauss died in 2005, but has now been accused of sexual misconduct by former college student athletes

Dr. Richard Strauss died in 2005, but has now been accused of sexual misconduct by former college student athletes

Former wrestler Mike DiSabato has said that Jordan is 'absolutely lying' when he says he did not know about the allegations

Former wrestler Mike DiSabato has said that Jordan is ‘absolutely lying’ when he says he did not know about the allegations

Strauss ‘conducted his transgressions behind closed doors and regretfully, I never told anyone except for my father. Jim Jordan is an honorable man that does not deserve this unwarranted attention,’ Matt Mondalek, who wrestled at the school from 1995 to 1999, said.

His statement came from the PR firm Shirley and Banister, run by a best-selling biographer of Republican President Ronald Reagan and a district vice-chair of the Republican Party of Virginia.

Jordan is a conservative Republican and a member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus

Jordan is a conservative Republican and a member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus

Members of the House leadership are also lining up to defend Jordan.

Speaker Paul Ryan called him ‘a man of honesty, a man of integrity’ on Wednesday and dismissed calls for a formal ethics investigation.

California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, said this week that Jordan ‘absolutely would have acted’ if he had been told about sexual abuse at OSU.

GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana insisted he would ‘stand up for his athletes, just like he’s always stood up for what’s right.’

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, whose membership includes Jordan, said he is ‘confident people will learn the truth’ and Jordan will be vindicated.

And President Trump backed him last week aboard Air Force One. 

‘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 told reporters. 

‘No question in my mind. I believe Jim Jordan 100 per cent. He’s an outstanding man.’ 

A spokesman for Jordan on Wednesdsay referred DailyMail.com to a second spokesman, who didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The anti-Jordan banner is shown flying last week over Columbus, Ohio, where OSU is located

The anti-Jordan banner is shown flying last week over Columbus, Ohio, where OSU is located

On his blog, Claude Taylor has published a claim that there is a sealed indictment against Donald Trump

On his blog, Claude Taylor has published a claim that there is a sealed indictment against Donald Trump

Taylor said he wasn’t impressed with the GOP supporting its own, saying that ‘defend[ing] Jim Jordan is what I would expect from a toady like Paul Ryan.’

He also blasted Jordan for endorsing former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, whose Alabama campaign crashed and burned amid claims of racism and allegations that he sexually assaulted teenage girls decades earlier.

‘With Roy Moore and Jim Jordan, it’s becoming the party where white supremacy and sexual assault is given a wink and a nod to, at best,’ Taylor said.

Taylor has his own scandals to contend with. 

In an article on a blog he co-writes with a former British Member of Parliament, he wrote last year that ‘a sealed indictment has been granted against Donald Trump’ by an unnamed court.

‘I think it remains to be seen,’ he said. ‘At this point, I’m willing to stand by it.’ 

The blog, Patribotics, also published a claim that former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page traveled to Moscow in July 2016 with an audio message recorded by Donald Trump, ‘offering to change American policy’ to benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin – in exchange for help ‘hacking the election.’



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