The White House on Wednesday praised the female gymnasts who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier in the day about disgraced doctor Larry Nassar, calling the former USA Gymnastics team doctor “monstrous.”
“All of these women are brave and courageous and came forward and spoke about the abuse of a monstrous human being that they lived through as gymnasts, as some of the nation’s top athletes. That’s courageous, that’s brave, they’re playing a role in preventing this from ever happening again,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.
Psaki said the testimony from Olympic gymnasts including Simone Biles and Aly Raisman was “incredibly powerful.” Biles at the hearing blamed the “entire system” for enabling the abuse and said multiple entities failed to do their jobs.
Pskai said aides have spoken to President Biden about the testimony but he hasn’t had an opportunity to watch much of it with his full schedule
“We have mentioned it to him because obviously it impacted many of us. As you're watching, I don’t know how anyone couldn’t have been impacted watching it. But I’m not sure if he’ll have the opportunity [to watch] later today. I know he has been following this closely, of course,” she said.
The Senate hearing follows the release of a Justice Department inspector general report that faulted the FBI for not responding to the allegations against Nassar with the urgency they required.
Psaki said Biden supports the Justice Department's process to prevent the situation from happening again.
“The Department of Justice has said that the FBI is promptly taking the steps outlined in the report to ensure that this can never happen again, which certainly the president supports that,” she said.
Michael Langeman, the supervisory special agent at the FBI’s Indianapolis office during the Nassar investigation, has been fired over the handling of the case.
Asked if the president believe more agents should be removed from their jobs, Psaki reiterated, “there’s an IG investigation, which is an important process and one that should be followed, and he certainly supports that.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray said he plans to take further action within the FBI, and said “our folks failed to do their jobs” at the hearing. He apologized to the victims of Nassar for the way his agency handled abuse allegations, saying he was “deeply and profoundly sorry.”
