House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has declined to call upon Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-CA) to resign after he was sued for allegedly molesting a teenage girl whom he allegedly drugged in 2007.
Instead, Pelosi decided to refer Cardenas to the House Ethics Committee for investigation.
Late last week, Pelosi released a statement in which she indicated that she had spoken with Cardenas, and that he had “appropriately asked us to withhold judgment until there is a full investigation of the facts.”
Last year, Pelosi was among those Democratic leaders demanding that Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Alabama, withdraw “We’re talking about a child molester,” Pelosi told NBC News’ Chuck Todd on Meet the Press on November 27.
Pelosi declared that there would now be “zero tolerance” for sexual misconduct in Congress: “Women have spoken out. Their concerns will be addressed in a way that I think will give comfort, as well as end this behavior. … Because you know what? It’s disgusting, it’s repulsive, and it has to be zero tolerance.”
At the time, Pelosi also said there should also be “due process” for Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), who was soon forced to retire over allegations of sexual misconduct.
Like Moore, Cardenas denies the claims against him. His lawyer attacked the woman who sued him — identified only as “Jane Doe” — as “the daughter of a disgruntled former employee and [she] may be the victim of manipulation,” as quoted by Politico.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
This article has been corrected to note that John Conyers is a Democrat, not a Republican.