Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — who holds the distinction of being one of the most ignorantly loud-mouthed members of Congress — melted down during a House Rules Committee hearing on Wednesday after chairman Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) asked him if he would admit that the 2020 presidential election was not “stolen.” Jordan refused, instead launching into egotistical rants about the supposed follies of the Democrats.
Before McGovern even finished his initial question, Jordan insisted that he “never said it was stolen, Mr. Chairman,” adding as follows:
‘I’ll give you the same answer [as at an earlier hearing]. I never said it was. I said we should investigate it. I said on January 6th when the electoral votes were counted that Joe Biden is the president of the United States… The real question is, why don’t you guys want to investigate what happened?’
McGovern noted in response that Jordan said “a lot of words just now,” but “unfortunately,” he remained unwilling to make the basic observation that Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election. For Jordan to pretend like there haven’t been comprehensive investigations of every corner of the 2020 presidential election process is flat-out ridiculous and glosses over the diligent work of local officials in literally every single state. In each and every state, officials have attested to the security of the presidential election results in their respective jurisdictions.
McGovern noted that Jordan was “pushing debunked conspiracy theories and adding fuel to the fire,” to which Jordan whined in response that he wasn’t “pushing any conspiracy theories.” McGovern noted as follows:
‘We saw on January 6 how misinformation could lead some people to violence and ultimately endanger our democracy… The notion that there’s all this outrage today over people asking questions, and there’s not outrage over the fact that the Capitol Police who are here to protect us and who do protect us every day were beaten [is ridiculous]… The fact that somehow, asking questions [and] trying to figure out, why did this happen, who was responsible — [the idea] that somehow that is a bad thing — give me a break… All of us are concerned about the future of our democracy in the aftermath of what happened.’
Jordan replied by angrily ranting that Republicans have “condemned violence every stinking time it happened” — including the isolated instances of violence that unfolded in connection to protests for racial justice in 2020. Jordan ranted as though Democrats hadn’t condemned that violence, which is such an old and long-debunked line at this point. Democrats condemned the violence over and over and over. How is Jordan still on this? It all feels so staged — while Americans (and Democratic leaders) deal with real problems, Jordan is engaged in this vapid theater. Watch his freak-out during the Wednesday hearing below:
