ABC’s Cokie Roberts, while appearing on ABCβs This Week may have accidentally admitted the Washington press corps covered up Rep. John Conyers’ sexual predatory behavior.
Roberts said it was an open secret among female reporters that he’s unsafe to be caught in close proximity to.
“Every female in the press corps knew that, right, donβt get in elevator with him,” Roberts said recently of the embattled Michigan congressman. “Now people are saying it out loud.”
Here is part of the transcript:
RADDATZ: — But they probably will be talking about. And what about Conyers and Franken? Nothingβs happened since. What happens to them?
BACON: Itβs not clear that any Democrat so far have said they should resign. You saw Kathleen Rice. Other than that, you havenβt seen a lot of them.
Iβm curious. My question of this whole process is, saying it should go to the ethic committee a real thing or is it just a stalling tactic? And thatβs what we donβt know yet. Theyβve set up a process, but does the process matter, and is the process going to the lead β like itβs hard for me to see…
ROBERTS: Itβs like rehab, you know β heβs going to rehab.
BACON: …going to do anything other than the obviously. We know what happened, essentially. So, does that lead to a resignation, or does that just lead to a stalling process? And thatβs what I donβt know yet.
KLEIN: Can they weather the storm, right? One of these happens, another one happens. And if it just becomes noise, then maybe they can hang on.
ROBERTS: And you know they are so used to it. I mean, the culture of Capitol Hill for so many decades was men being bad. And…
RADDATZ: So, we talk about that. We have talked about it weeks and weeks. But does anything really change?
ROBERTS: No.
RADDATZ: We ask that question. I mean, this seems unprecedented how many. But do you think people are really talking about it as if things will change?
PALMER: I donβt think that the culture has β we havenβt seen major shift, right? And I would also just point out, members policing themselves, a very bad track record of it, whether itβs about these kind of scandals, whether itβs about how they use their finances. There is β nobody is saying that theyβre going to change the whole process by which this is done, that theyβre going to throw out members if they actually have sexual harassment cases. This is a big problem for them.
ROBERTS: The fact that people are willing to be public can change things. I mean, we all talked about for years.
RADDATZ: A little bit at a time.
ROBERTS: Donβt get in the elevator with him, you know, and the whole every female in the press corps knew that, right, donβt get in elevator with him. Now people are saying it out loud. And I think that does make a difference.
So, every woman in the press corps knew this was happening, yet no one reported it? Essentially, the national press has willingly withheld this information from the public, enabling this misconduct to go on for some time. Is this why congress has also gotten away with over 20 years of sexual harassment settlements without the public being aware? A $17 million-dollar fund, used by the government to cover up sex, lies and corruption, and no one is pressing on who the culprits were? The willingness to give members of Congress such as Al Franken a pass seems suspicious.
Cokie Roberts says this has been going on for years, has been well-known for years, yet, Roberts and the rest of the press corps are not naming names? Why not?
What else is being covered up to protect certain members of Congress that can be relied up to vote a certain way?
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IMO, Nina Burleigh answered that question during the Clinton impeachment era…..when she said that she would gladly………….erm……….uhhh……..felate the President just for keeping abortion legal.
Birds of a feather flock together; in this case the definition of flock is to guard against enemies of the Narrative.