Ken Starr Denies Endemic Sexual Assault Culture at Baylor, Adds, “A Grave Injustice Was Done to Art Briles”

File this under: you've got to be fucking kidding me. Former Baylor president Ken Starr seems to have forgotten what a real victim is, as, in an interview with the Texas Tribune today, he said that "a grave injustice" was done to Baylor's fired football coach Art Briles. Injustice? Starr might be forgetting the sexual assault victims that received absolutely no justice under his and Briles' tenure.

The Baylor University football team was rightfully embroiled in a scandal earlier this year, after an investigation revealed that the university and its football program repeatedly failed to respond to sexual assault accusations against Baylor's football players. In at least one incident, the investigation discovered, university administrators even retaliated against a complainant. Starr was forced to resign and Briles was fired—and I guess that's the injustice he was talking about? Let's take a closer look:

"[Art Briles] is an honorable, decent man who committed his life to molding the lives of young men," Starr said, adding, "I have great confidence—to this day—in Coach Briles. If there was a question of integrity, you fire the person for cause. Art Briles was not fired for cause."

Wait, what? The investigation, done by law firm Pepper Hamilton came away with a pretty clear cause, Kenn, finding "examples of actions by two university administrators that directly discouraged complainants from reporting or participating in student conduct processes, or that contributed to or accommodated a hostile environment." In fact, a report by the university itself concluded that Baylor had, "failed to take action to identify and eliminate a potentially hostile environment, prevent its recurrence, or address its effects for individual complainants or the broader campus community."

And about that whole rape culture issue: Starr's main driving point of the interview seemed to be that Baylor did not have an endemic sexual assault problem.

"I'm going to resist the issue, or the characterization, that there was an endemic problem," Starr said. Here's an excerpt from the Tribune about how Starr sees Baylor in relation to its peers:

But he suggested that the school was grappling with the same challenges as universities across the country—based upon what he said was his limited information.

"I'm not privy to all the facts," Starr said, echoing that refrain several times during the interview.

You know, rape: just one of those common "challenges" that universities face. This is coming from a man who described the sexual assault at Baylor as "interpersonal violence" and "unpleasantness"—words he used during the Tribune interview. And as if he didn't hit all the right notes of male privilege-blind denial, he also went straight for the victim blaming during the interview, saying, "My encouragement to students is—don't go to these off-campus parties. Just don't go."

And to close the whole thing off, Starr used his final words to complain that "this huge narrative" as "so unfair to the university." For someone accused of fostering a culture neglect and ignorance, Starr seemed pretty intent on using those exact tools to deny what is so plainly in front of his face.