Is there anything at all that would make Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) admit that the president he’s stuck by for so long is guilty of corruption? This weekend, he went on Face The Nation to try and defend President Donald Trump against those concerned about his latest brazen plotting following the first week of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry that Democrats have launched. He simply completely ignored the clearly demonstrable evidence of the Trump team seeking to tie aid for Ukraine to them announcing an investigation into the Bidens.
Host Margaret Brennan asked the new intel committee member what alternative reason he had for why the Ukraine aid was released, considering those who’ve pointed out that after a long time of waiting, the release only happened following the emergence of a whistleblower complaint outlining the Biden dirt plot.
Ignoring the evidence including firsthand accounts of the president and his closest associates (like donor turned E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland) pushing Ukraine for an investigation announcement, Jordan rather anxiously insisted that the aid was released:
‘Because President Zelensky met five times with senior U.S. officials, one of course was the phone call with President Trump and four meetings, actually face-to-face meetings with U.S. Senators, Ambassadors, with Vice President Pence, and in each of those meetings, never was it talked about linking the security systems dollars to any type of investigations. But what did happen in those meetings is they all became convinced: Zelensky’s the real deal. Remember: we’re talking about Ukraine. One of the three most corrupt countries on the planet.’
“There was never this quid pro quo,” @Jim_Jordan tells @margbrennan, adding that Ukraine aid was released because American officials saw Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as the “real deal.” WATCH –> pic.twitter.com/2LdFdWEh6Z
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 17, 2019
Spouting off more GOP talking points, Jordan (still anxiously) continued:
‘Most importantly, the Ukrainians did nothing as far as the investigations go to get the aid released. So there was never this quid pro quo that the Democrats all promised existed before President Trump released the phone call.’
In fact, one report in The New York Times says that Zelensky had actually settled on announcing an investigation into the Bidens during an appearance on CNN, the network that Trump goons wanted him to use for the announcement, for whatever reason. CNN says they didn’t know what Zelensky had actually planned to say and that a date had not yet been set before news of the Trump camp’s secret pressure campaign leaked, but they did confirm that they’d agreed to have Zelensky on the air at some point.
Jordan would like us to believe that the fact that aid was finally released only after a whistleblower complaint came out revealing the Ukraine plot is just a coincidence. He’s simply picking facts and complete fantasy at whim, mixing them together and presenting his mess of a story for the nation and world to peruse.
This week, no matter House Republicans’ melodramatic posturing, impeachment investigators already have eight more witnesses slated to testify publicly in addition to the private testimony that they keep collecting. Sondland himself is even among those witnesses. Considering what happened last week, there will likely be more in-hearing theatrics from Jordan in the days ahead.
