(CNN)More than a day after the child sexual assault allegations against California Congressman Tony Cardenas became public, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she was withholding judgment on Cardenas until a House Ethics Committee investigation is complete.
A broad array of other Democratic officials in California and in Washington have declined to comment publicly.
The cautious response to a sitting congressman accused of assaulting a then-16-year-old girl more than 10 years ago is striking after a year in which the #MeToo movement and the Roy Moore scandal dominated the headlines. Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota resigned in December after being accused of lesser offenses and after several of his Senate colleagues called on him to do so.
But it underscored both the complexity of the case — Cardenas says the allegations are “categorically, 100% false” — and the political bind that Democrats are facing in California in the 2018 midterm elections.
— Read on www.cnn.com/2018/05/05/politics/democrats-response-cardenas-allegations/index.html