#2020 elections

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

We haven’t seen or heard a lot from GOP Rep. Jim Jordan over the past year. So my anger towards the fact he escaped being held accountable for his role as a criminal co-conspirator in Donald Trump’s attempted coup had subsided. But that all changed Thursday when I saw the smug, jacketless prick spewing baseless BS in his question of former Special Counsel Jack Smith during his testimony before Congress. Watching Jordan lie that the prosecution by Smith of Trump “was always about politics” reminded me that Jordan should not be chair of the Judiciary Committee. In reality, he should be in prison for his role as Trump’s top ally in Congress who helped overturn the 2020 election. Let’s be very clear: No member of Congress was more involved in Trump’s attempted coup than Jordan. We know that by the way of the House Jan 6 committee report which detailed Jordan’s actions. As the Jan 6 committee’s final report bluntly states, Jordan was “a significant player in President Trump’s efforts” to overturn the election. For starters, the report details that Jordan “spread lies about the election,” such as when he travelled from his home state of Ohio to speak “at a “Stop the Steal” rally in front of the Pennsylvania State capitol in Harrisburg, just days after the November election.” Jordan also trafficked in election lies “during interviews with friendly media outlets.”

But Jordan’s actions went far beyond amplifying Trump’s election lies. He was one of the key players in plotting to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory. As the Jan 6 report explains, Jordan “participated in numerous post-election meetings in which senior White House officials, Rudolph Giuliani, and others, discussed strategies for challenging the election, chief among them claims that the election had been tainted by fraud.” (As Jordan knew full well, the election had not been “tainted by fraud” as every court that considered Trump and his allies claims to overturn the results back up.) The report also documents Jordan’s leadership role in the effort to prevent the certification of Biden’s victory. For example, the report explains that, “On January 2, 2021, Representative Jordan led a conference call in which he, President Trump, and other Members of Congress discussed strategies for delaying the January 6th joint session.” During that call, they talked not only strategy for the Jan 6 certification process but also stunningly “discussed issuing social media posts encouraging President Trump’s supporters to “march to the Capitol” on the 6th. In other words, Jordan helped with encouraging people to head to the Capitol on Jan 6 that led to the attack on the very chamber he now serves as a committee chair.

After that conference call, Jordan spoke to Trump for 18 minutes in a one-on-one conversation. What did they talk about?! But Jordan was not close to being done in his efforts to block the peaceful transfer of power. The Jan 6 committee report further details, on Jan 5, “Jordan texted Mark Meadows [Trump’s then chief of staff], passing along advice that Vice President Pence should “call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.” Yes, Jordan was specifically giving advice on how Pence should illegally prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s win.

[...] Jack Smith is an American patriot who has been subjected to death threats and now the threat of criminal prosecution for trying to uphold our Constitution. Meanwhile, Jordan who was a “significant player” in Trump’s coup effort and defied a subpoena is now chair of the House Judiciary committee. This is the upside world where we find ourselves in as a nation.

President elect Joe Biden addressing the lgbt+ community and minorities in his victory speech.