It feels like 2006 all over again. That's when prosecutor Mike Nifong and officials at Duke University made a very big show of prosecuting the Duke lacrosse players, who were accused of raping stripper Crystal Mangum. Mangum claimed the lacrosse players of raping her at a party, and even after DNA tests and investigations yielded no proof of the crime, Nifong pressed on, the media smeared the players, the lacrosse coach resigned, and the school canceled their season.
It turned out Mangum made up the entire thing, and she was later found guilty of murdering her boyfriend. The same thing happened in 2014, when Columbia University student Emma Sulkowitz accused classmate Paul Nungesser of violently raping her. Sulkowitz then carried a mattress around campus, vowing to do so until Nungesser was arrested and jailed. There was no proof Nungesser did anything wrong, but students and faculty made his life on campus a living hell. That same year, Rolling Stone wrote a since-retracted story about a rape at UVA. The entire thing was made up and Rolling Stone ended up paying the fraternity it targeted $2 million after losing a defamation suit.
Now we're doing the same thing with the Cornell case, which has catapulted back into the national conversation even though the DA said in 2024 that there were voluntary drug/sex acts and no charges were filed. The victim's claims in her recently filed lawsuit are wildly different from the statements she made to police two years ago, including telling police the encounter was consensual.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul went so far as to name Attorney General Letitia James as the special prosecutor for the case.
And now politicians are weighing in, including Abdul El-Sayed, who gets everything wrong, of course.
A young woman bravely reported that she was sexually assaulted in 2024 by seven men at their fraternity. But instead of protecting her, Cornell University protected her abusers, letting them off with a slap on the wrist.
โ Dr. Abdul El-Sayed (@AbdulElSayed) October 1, 2026
Itโs outrageous and a failure of both the institution andโฆ
There were consequences. Cornell's Title IX investigation resulted in suspensions and expulsions, and the fraternity was closed and barred from campus.
lol fire your staffers for letting you walk into this rake pic.twitter.com/exLujRX8KX
โ ๐ป๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ ๐ฃ ๐ฝ๐๐ฅ๐ (@georg3) October 2, 2026
A lot of people are going to be eating crow over this.
Any comment on the rampant sexual crimes in your own community?
โ Sour Patch Mom ู (@sourpatchlyds) October 2, 2026
Nah, pointing that out is racist and Islamophobic.
โIt doesnโt matter if rapes happened on October 7thโ pic.twitter.com/M86nJ2cIxt
โ Never Mind (@NeverMi49223793) October 2, 2026
Man, what a bad look for El-Sayed.
Oh boy. https://t.co/F21VE7hJFc
โ Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 2, 2026
He did not think this through, did he?
Abdul will not put up with rape unless the victim is a Jew at a music festival. https://t.co/6o0TmYRjiJ
โ Sunny (@sunnyright) October 2, 2026
That's an acceptable form of resistance, after all.
Now please comment on the Pakistan grooming gangs in Englandโฆ you have as much insight into that case as you do on this one https://t.co/Uyz1k0KZIf
โ Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) October 2, 2026
He will never do that.
This isn't the first time El-Sayed has posted about a hoax, either.
same vibe https://t.co/4jFgvC6bBu https://t.co/1mIZonfVtN pic.twitter.com/fRthYETpRu
โ Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) October 2, 2026
The truth doesn't matter to Democrats. They want the narrative that men โ especially white men โ are all abusive rapists. They don't care about the DA's 2024 investigation or the facts of the case. They've already decided the seven young men are guilty, and they're going to say and do whatever it takes to land them behind bars. It's especially rich coming from El-Sayed, who pals around with Hasan Piker, who excused the rapes of Jews in Israel on October 7.
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