Didnt know of any abuse. They just thats just not accurate to say that we knew and didnt report it. Not true. I have with me, mike disabato, former ohio state wrestler, who says he was abused by that team doctor and that thenassistant coach jim jordan knew all about it. Thank you very much for joining me. Thank you, brooke. I want to get you to respond to the congressman in a second. First i want to focus on you, mike. So take me back. You were first when you were 14, in high school when you first met dr. Strauss. And its my understanding he told you needed to undergo some ser sort of body fat evaluation. Can you tell me what happened . Actually, doc was conducting a Research Study in conjunction with the university, the Ohio High SchoolAthletic Association and the catholic diocese. He had access to our highprofile High School Wrestling team based here in columbus. We had been state champions in 1982 and 1983 when i was a freshman. We were told that we were going to have the Ohio State University doc come to our school and we got to participate in a study by the university that would conduct a body fat test in the middle of the season and the end of the season. Which is not atypical. That type. Research was going on at the that type of research was going on at the time. Making sure wrestlers made weight effectively. During that examination, he gave a thorough examination of my groin area, testicles, and penis. This is not something i wanted to come on cnn and talk about necessarily, but it is what it is. We had conversations with the university. Ive been working with them for over three years to address issues related to the health and safety of student athletes. Jim jordan knows this. Ive been a friend to jim jordan and his family for over 40 years. Ive spoken to jim on a monthly basis over the last 20 years. And my my issues with jim jordan are not his behavior at the time at ohio state. He was a 23yearold coach who was somewhat of a big brother. Not necessarily the head coach which is a father figure, jim was the kind of guy we could banter with, liked to hear stories of what happened on campus. Thats the role of assistants coach. I was a student athlete. I understand he was like a big brother. The coach is like your father. This inappropriate behavior, you allege, was going on not just when you were getting this big, important ohio state to come in when youre in high school, but obviously into your college years. And so you mentioned jim jordan. Did you go to him, mike . This is the key question. Did you go to him back then and report this inappropriate behavior from dr. Strauss . First of all, i would yes or no . I didnt file the initial report. Can i get a yes or no first . Yes, i talked to jim jordan. Okay. Yes. You talked to jim jordan. Can you tell me more about the substance of the conversations and jim jordan then as this assistant coach and the bigbrother figure, did what did jim jordan say to you as far as proper steps to stop it . Yeah. These conversations were not individual conversations. They were conversations with a group of athletes who were complaining on a regular basis not only about dr. Strauss but the conditions within the hall that forced us to take showers with not only dr. Strauss but other University Faculty members and professors who had access to on our shower facility that led to lewd acts, masturbation, excessive soaping of the groin area. And dr. Strauss took a lot of showers and soaped himself a lot. When you look at the definition of sexual abuse and Sexual Assault and jim jordan went on record saying he knew about the facilities, he took showers with us. He saw dr. Strauss and others perform these acts in front of us. It was a huge issue with mike . Yes . I cant begin to appreciate or understand how uncomfortable and inappropriate that was for you and your fellow wrestlers. Again, to hear the nowcongressman jim jordan flatout saying he he was never aware of what happened with dr. Strauss, flatout denies it, your reaction to that . In april of 2000 april of this year, i sent jim an email correspondence to follow up on a conversation we had in march. In the email i urged and begged him to get involved as a former coach, a person in a political position that could help cut through the red tape, the double talk, and the nonsense that we had been dealing with from the university. The university is threatened, harassed, intimidated, not only me but other victims it was our hope that jim would acknowledge what happened did he to you . What he did say on our march conversation was he didnt deny whatness happening, and he said he didnt deny what was happening, and he said he wanted to be left out of it. A lot of times when you speak to someone who has knowledge of a victim, it takes time to process those types of conversations. It took me some time to look first of all, the testimony of the young women at michigan state, and when you looked at the testimony and hear the details of what larry nassar did to the young ladies, it was like looking in the mirror. For jim jordan to not support us, not just me, but to not support the group of athletes that trained for him, with him, and competed alongside him for eight years is baffling not just to me but our entire team. Ive spoken to over 15 athletes today, who we cannot figure why he would create a narrative that would just not true and its not necessary. Were not blaming him mike . For his actions then listen, i hear your frustration. I hear that youve talked to these 15 athletes. Youre baffled, right . On the to be fair to the other side of the story, again, its his office, jim jordans office, you know, they acknowledge you brought up the emails back and forth between the congressman and you, but theyve actually said that the reason the congressman didnt always responds to you is because he felt always respond to you is because these felt, their word, you were bullying him. Were you bullying him . First of all, jim jordan is a worldcal befoiber athlete who very aggressive in his actions on hes a bulldog. Lets be honest. I think we saw a lot of that last week with the with mr. Rosenstein. For him to say he was being bullied by mike disabatos somewhat laughable. Ill take it because ive never bullied jim jordan on the mat. He was a heck a lot of better than me at the time. Yet again, i think jim is in a position where he doesnt know what to say now because he i think he received absolutely terrible advice from whomever was advising him because, again, all you have to do is research the word abuse. And read the definition and think back to your time at ohio state. Its easy to put the two together. Maybe we didnt use the word abuse at the time, the words Sexual Assault, but it was common within the athletics department. Were talk about 15 sports, over 1,000 athletes. Im hearing a good friend of mine who i talked to on a regular basis who i consider a friend now backpedaling, not because we told him what to say, i didnt no one told him you need to we hoped he would stay in front of this. Hes saying, mike, let me jump in let me stop you. Hes saying, you know, on the email exchange, hes saying that he got an email from you as recent as 4 30 this morning. Did you email him early this mornin morning . Actually, i think i sent a text message. I havent reviewed ive been obviously over the last 24 hours, inundate with media requests. Of course. And frankly, i havent slept. So whether i sent an email or text message email, text, either way, can you tell me what the i hear the content was i had taken a screenshot from jim jordans cousin, also a former ohio state Football Player and an employee of the Ohio State University, who posted a mugshot of me on the internet and suggested that a local news station look into the, quote unquote, victim, it n an attempt to intimidate and retaliate, against the official sexual abuse policy that was drafted by the university in 1980 and is published. And matt finkus, this employee, former football legend, i dont know why hes taking shots at me other than the fact that his cous cousin jim and cousin jeff are in the middle of a foyerstoires that we did not create. Here im listening to all of this. And heres my last question. These allegations, everything youre detailing and by the way, im sure this is just a piece of what youre saying happened to you at the time, the doctor at the center of this, he is, you know, no longer with us, he passed away 13 years ago. So what does justice look like for you . Well, what justice looks like is transparency, accountability, and justice. We have several former athletic two athletic directors at the Ohio State University are accepting pensions from the taxpayers of the state of ohio despite the fact that they were well aware of the allegations, theyre not allegations, the facts associated with strauss and the locker room. I had two athletes in the 90s who met with geiger and told the dispatch doc strauss didnt ring a bell. The 1993 94 season, we had one captain and another athlete sit with andy geiger and discuss dr. Strauss, his access to our locker room, he had a lockner our room, and locker in our room, and he would take four, five, six showers with different athletes and different sports and venues on one day, all on the time of the taxpayers of the state of ohio. And this was well known by jim jordan. I recall one day jim jordan, his locker was right next to doc strauss. Doc strauss had just taken a shower, was was dressing ffor to exit the building or go wherever he was going, he saw another male athlete come into the locker room with his shirt off, one of what i called his favorites, he had his favorites, and as doc was walking out, he saw the guy coming in, he stopped in his tracks, he turned around, went back to the locker, undressed, and went back into the shower. And i recall vividly jim jordan looking at me and us going, wow. Mike disabato, thank you very much. Brooke, i appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Coming up next, new details emerge being a white house meeting where President Trump raises the possibility of a u. S. Invasion of venezuela. Hear how his top Foreign Policy advisers responded. Also ahead, we are learning that epa chief scott pruitt apparently pitched an idea to have the president fire Jeff Sessions, his attorney general, and hire pruitt instead. This as pruitt is facing more than a dozen ethics investigations. electronic dance music at crowne plaza, we know Business Travel isnt just business. Theres this. A bit of this. Why not . Your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. Which is what we do. Crowne plaza. Were all business, mostly. Were back on this fourth of july. Im brooke baldwin. Thanks for being with me. Mr. President , fire Jeff Sessions and hire me. New reporting that epa chief scott pruitt pitched that idea to President Trump this past spring. But now that pruitt is facing even more alleged ethics violations, a Senior Administration official says pruitt is, quote unquote, inching toward to the Tipping Point. Pruitt is already the subject of at least 14 different probes. The list lays out things hes accused of doing. Ill read a few. Asking his aides to get his wife a job twice. Renting a room near capitol hill from a lobbyist for 50 a night. Having an aide inquire about getting a used Trump Hotel Mattress for him, wanting to use police sire tones blow through d. C. Traffic. Flying first class every single time, giving big raises to his favorite state of favorite staff, installing a private phone in his office. Using secret service to pick up lunch and dry cleaning. Spending taxpayer money on trips to italy, morocco, disneyland, the rose bowl, and multiple trips to his home in oklahoma. So lets start there with two cnn political commentators. Par is denard, member of the trump advisory board. Peter binard, contributing editor for the atlantic. Happy independence day. And parris, with your red, white, and blue, lets begin with you. On scott pruitt, the fact that according to reports that he felt confident enough to go to the president and say, fire session and hire me, then im going to go back to oklahoma and run for office. Even though he has all of these investigations, you know, against him, can you defend that . Is that hubris . Its surely confident i think that pruitt is confidence in the work hes doing as epa administrator. By all issues, the president is happy with the work hes been doing in his role regarding the regulations and the things that hes carrying out which is what the president wants him to do. I think hes confident that hes doing a good job. I guess he feels confident that so confident that he could do someone elses job. As a team player in the cabinet, you would think that wouldnt be the case, that you would actively try to have someone fired. But hes denied it. I you know, ran it through, though, a bunch of sort of the highlights of what the the probes hes facing, things hes alleged to have done. Do you think he should have been fired by now . Well, what i will tell you, no, because he has not lost favor with the president. The president is in an interesting situation because on face vaushlgs pruitt is doing a good job when it comes to carrying out the agenda that the president wants him to do when it comes to his role. The other things are becoming a distraction. Hang on yeah . The fact that he is still in good graces with the president is good news for pruitt. But what about ethics violations, is that flying out the window, doesnt matter . No. I think at a certain degree if the ethics violations are shown to be true and they can corroborate them and the proper channels punish him or take care of the issues, if it becomes a big enough distraction from him doing the job that hes doing a good job at, the president will act and say either you have to go or keep doing those things and stop the things that are problematic or are unethical. Peter, how do you see it . Donald trump is is happy with scott pruitt because what scott pruitt has done is hand over the Environmental Protection agency to the industries that the Environmental Protection agency is supposed to regulate. Among the in some ways, im less concerned about him getting the secret service to go get his laundry as ridiculous and pathetic as that is, as the fact that we now know he was having secret meetings with industry representatives because this is a man not interested in regulating industries that pl that pollute the environment. Hes interested in handing over industries that pollute the government. Thats why donald trump is so happy with him. I suspect what will happen is that donald trump eventually will decide that hes become a political liability, and he will look for someone else who does the same thing as scott pruitt in terms of not protecting our environment, but is more discreet in terms of his personal corruption. If according to the official at the white house theyre inching toward this Tipping Point, what is the Tipping Point for scott pruitt, peter, what does it look like . One of the difficult things, its hard ton n Donald Trumps mind hard in Donald Trumps mind what would consider a ethics violation. A man who hasnt released his tax returns, has intermingled in unprecedented ways the affairs of state and private business afairfax bringing up his own affairs, bringing up his own business into meetings with heads of state, bringing his daughter, et cetera. Its than its hard to imagine that if youre donald trump these things dont seem so terrible, but what i imagine theyre seeing is this is bad publicity. They can probably find someone who has Scott Pruitts ideological agenda, whos a little more discreet. Let me move back to you, parris. Michael cohen, big day tomorrow, back in court. Noteworthy today, we put up his twitter page. You have the profile under twitter. Originally he referred to himself as trumps personal attorney. That is now scrubbed. Hes changed his cover photo. This is a couple of days after what he said to George Stephanopoulos at abc. Should the white house be worried . The white house should not be worried about michael cone. They should be focused on what they should be focused on which is running the country and letting the courts decide other thanks a things that are happening. Michael cohen i think is listening to the advise of counsel, and he may not be the attorney for the president anywhere. It may be wholly appropriate for him to do that as the pending investigation or case against him may involve his past roles it might be smart to separate himself completely so theres no issues of impropriety. We dont want to read into it, but the white house needs to focus on that and let the president s personal attorneys deal with the things that are distractions from the work that the president and his teem white house which have nothing to do with Michael Cohen are doing. Peter, do you agree . Nothing to see here, twitter changes, much ado about nothing . Look, it stands to reason that if Michael Cohen is facing a choice between flipping on donald trump and saying things that donald trump wouldnt want him to say and looking at a prison term, terrible ramifications for his family, the vast majority of people are going to put their family and themselves in front of donald trump. In that sense, yes, the Trump Administration has something to worry about. The political reality is that given the kind of hear no evil, see no evicti victi see no evd trump that is reflected by my fellow panelist and fox news and most of the Republican Party it woeb wont matter what the media uncovers about what trump was doing, what Michael Cohen says. Literally no matter what comes out, people like parris will defend donald trump. Actually you dont know me to say that i heard you so many times, and ive never heard you criticize donald trump on anything. Actually, thats not true. You should do better on your homework. What i will ive