Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) said it is “naive to suggest” that sexual harassment “doesn’t happen” in the halls of Congress.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Kasie DC” show Sunday evening, Ryan said a culture of sexual harassment is likely prevalent in “any institution, wherever you look in society” and said the best way to combat it is to “expose” it.
“It would be naive to suggest that doesn’t happen and I do believe that exposing these things can help improve the culture,” he said.
Ryan’s comments come after disgraced Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was fired from his own film studio and expelled from Hollywood’s Motion Picture Academy, which hands out the Oscars, as at least 30 women have come out and accused Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault in the past week.
While Ryan admits he’s “not a big Hollywood gossiper” and “didn’t know” who Weinstein was until the reports surfaced last weekend, he called Weinstein’s behavior “horrendous” and said “no woman should ever fear they have to put up with this kind of stuff.”
“Obviously he needs to be held to account,” he said. “I think in any institution, wherever you look in society, you’re going to have these kinds of problems. The more you expose it and the more we can castigate people in society on these things to show that this is not acceptable behavior, I think that’s to the good.”
Last night on @KasieDC: Our all-women panel talks about Harvey Weinstein, Washington & the harassment culture https://t.co/rY5EqhfWes
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) October 16, 2017
