During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on abortion rights on Thursday, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu, of California, called out GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, for trying to smear a 10-year-old victim of rape who was forced to leave Ohio to seek an abortion in Indiana.
“You’re going to hear a lot of words from my Republican colleagues,” Lieu said after Jordan went into a diatribe about protecting Brett Kavanaugh from protesters. “And all I have to do is give you one example that is devastating to their statements.”
“A ten-year-old girl got raped in Ohio and got pregnant. She could not get an abortion, because none of the exceptions in Ohio law would have authorized it. And what did MAGA Republicans do? They smeared her. They said she was lying.”
“In fact, at least one Republican member of this committee publicly tweeted that she lied, and then quietly deleted that tweet when — guess what – her perpetrator was arrested,” Lieu said.
The California Democrat then called for Republicans who tried to bury the story to apologize, and noted that conservatives have started to attack the doctor who helped the rape victim terminate her pregnancy.
Jordan is facing widespread criticism for tweeting “Another lie. Anyone surprised?” in reference to the story. But Jordan deleted his tweet after the suspect was arrested and confessed to raping the child at least twice.
According to court documents, Gerson Fuentes, 27, was arrested Tuesday and charged with felony rape of a minor under age 13. He is being held on $2 million bond.
Watch Rep. Ted Lieu’s takedown of Jim Jordan in the video below:
