Jim Jordan enjoys humiliating himself. He frequently tweets garbage that just serves to drag him down. During hearings he doesn’t like, he has hissy fits. He even does it on the House of Representatives floor. He did it again on Tuesday, when he tried to defend Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff who was found in contempt of Congress by a committee on Jan. 6 that almost included Jordan. His outburst was riddled with inaccuracies, and one of his Republican colleagues politely called him out on it.
Jordan slammed Democrats after taking the platform, accusing them of preventing Republicans from serving on the Jan. 6 committee, as well as attempting to remove the filibuster and make D.C. more democratic. He also claimed they were attempting to “destroy executive privilege,” a justification Trump and his allies have been erroneously relying on, despite the fact that it only protects sitting presidents.
And he cried for Mark Meadows, “my friend,” saying that holding him in contempt was “as terrible as it gets,” and that the true cause was his colleagues’ “desire for power, your lust to get your opponent is so intense you don’t care.”
Jordan’s avalanche of factually incorrect assertions and spittle was pure Jordan. Liz Cheney was having none of it.
After refusing to parrot Trump’s voter fraud allegations, the longstanding Republican was demoted from crucial positions by her own colleagues (including Jim Jordan). She carefully deconstructed Jordan’s nonsense.
Cheney rose to answer “some of the claims that my colleague from Ohio just made, which are absolutely wrong,” and then proceeded to go over them one by one. Meadows declined to appear for a deposition on a day he set himself, she pointed out. She also noted that he “refused to show up to address non-privileged questions,” i.e., issues that aren’t covered by “executive privilege,” according to her.
“So my colleague from Ohio can talk as much as he’d like about executive privilege, about George Washington and the extent of which it’s crucial for the survival of the Republic, with which I agree,” Cheney allowed. “But we are talking about testimony about non-privileged material.”
Cheney also noted that “we all on this side of the aisle used to be in agreement about what had happened on Jan. 6,” reading aloud a statement made by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Jan. 13, a week after the Capitol siege, in which he directly blamed Trump for the riot and said he should have put an end to it right away, which he did not.
“Unfortunately, Mr. McCarthy’s position changed on this issue,” Cheney said. “Mr. McCarthy then worked against, voted against the resolution that would have created a bipartisan commission to investigate these matters. And he withdrew his nominees to this committee. Let me say it again: He withdrew his nominees to this committee.”
“This committee is engaged in crucial investigative and legislative activities, for which there is no bigger purpose in terms of Congress’ obligation — regardless of what my colleague on the other side may argue in terms of Mr. Meadows,” she said at the end.
In any event, Jordan’s outburst over Meadows possibly going to jail could have been a projection. After all, the committee may summon him at any time.
