Nancy Pelosi says accused Rep. John Conyers is 'an icon in our country'

Nancy Pelosi on NBC

Update 1:22 p.m.: After Conyers stepped aside from his Judiciary Committee role pending an ethics investigation, Pelosi said his civil rights legacy "is not a license for harassment," commending "the brave women coming forward" and stating, "Zero tolerance means consequences." Our original post appears below.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a Sunday appearance on NBC's Meet the Press offered high praise for Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who reportedly settled a wrongful dismissal lawsuit from a former employee who was fired after declining Conyers' "sexual advances."

"John Conyers is an icon in our country," Pelosi told host Chuck Todd. "He has done a great deal to protect women." Pelosi said she is confident Conyers will "do the right thing" and sidestepped a question about believing his accuser by protesting that she does not know the woman's identity.

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Her remarks soon attracted broad criticism from left and right alike:

Conyers has "expressly and vehemently" denied the harassment allegations, which have led to his hometown paper's call for his resignation.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.