Tuesday Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) told Business Insider Tuesday that Congress needed “to have an investigation” into the sexual misconduct allegations against President Donald Trump.
Transcript as follows:
What’s happening I think is a great awakening with women across the United States of recognizing that they do not have to tolerate this kind of behavior.
No one should go to work and feel scared, feel uncomfortable, feel like they have to worry about somebody literally grabbing them or pushing them around or pushing them in an office or doing all the kind of things that we’ve been hearing about.
I’m proud of these women who are standing up, who are speaking out, and they need to know that there are a lot of men in the United States that stand with them, stand by them, and will continue to do that. So those of us in power have an obligation to stand with these women as well, who are really standing up and speaking out against the most powerful men in the United States, including the president of the United States.
I believe that the Democratic Party and the leaders in the Democratic Party have handled this a lot better than the Republicans. We acted, maybe not as quickly as I would have liked, but we acted and you still have the Republicans defending, campaigning for perverts that are running for office. Actually sending Republican campaign money and operatives to support a candidate who has acted in ways that nobody could condone.
So they have shown themselves incapable of being able to really get the moral high ground here and try to do what is right. And they did it with President Trump through the campaign, ignoring his behavior, they did it in the last week or so with the race in Alabama. There was not an outcry for Republican members of the House who were settling suits and all the rest. So they have missed an opportunity here to really communicate to the rest of the country that the Republican Party should be a party that doesn’t tolerate this stuff.
The Democrats have acted. It’s not always easy, but the Democrats did the right thing because we want to send a signal that this kind of behavior is not appropriate.
At least 19 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct.
The president doesn’t take responsibility for any of his actions, so I think it would be foolish of us to think all of a sudden he’s going to have a “come to Jesus” meeting and he’s going to take responsibility for all of the misdeeds that he has been accused of over the course of the last many years. Which is why I think that the Congress of the United States needs to have an investigation looking into the accusations against the president.
These women deserve to be heard. As I said, these women are taking on the most powerful man in the world, and we need to stand by them and let their voice be heard. So if the president isn’t going to act, which of course we know he’s not, the Congress needs to act and provide the kind of oversight and allow these women to be heard and let’s get the truth on all of these matters.
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