Eric Swalwell Burns Jim Jordan With Brutal 'Locker Room' Reminder

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) gave House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) an uncomfortable reminder of his own past during a debate on genders and locker rooms.

“I guess it’s a good thing that some folks on the other side are now interested in what happens in a locker room and we’re not going to look the other way,” Swalwell said on Thursday. “I’ll accept that.”

That was a not-so-subtle reminder of a time when Jordan was in a locker room as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University, where he was accused of ignoring molestation allegations against the team’s doctor.

Jordan has denied the allegations, which have been corroborated by several witnesses.

“I considered Jim Jordan a friend,” former wrestler Mike DiSabato said in 2018. “But at the end of the day, he is absolutely lying if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.”

Swalwell on Thursday spoke out against a Republican-backed bill that would order amateur and Olympic sports programs to block transgender athletes from women’s sports.

He said the bill would set-up “on-demand gender checks” and asked who would be enforcing it.

“Is Mr. Jordan enforcing it? Mr. Gaetz enforcing it? Mr. Biggs? Who is enforcing this on-demand gender check?” he asked, naming GOP lawmakers who back the bill. “You didn’t put that into the bill. Seems a little creepy that we don’t know who’s going to be determining genders here.”

“It’s kinda creepy,” he said again. “Kind of creepy that you’re setting up on-demand gender checks.”

Swalwell dismissed the matter as a “small issue” overall that Republicans are trying to “extrapolate” across the country.

“They want you to think it’s a thing. It’s not a thing,” he said. “There are things: Gun violence. Fertility bans. Government-mandated pregnancies. Those are things. This is not a thing.”

Swalwell concluded with one last jab at Jordan.

“Thank you for caring about what happens in locker rooms,” he said, with a dismissive wave.