Jim Jordan rebuked for giving ‘oxygen to Trump’s conspiracy theories’ in contentious committee hearing

‘We’re trying to bring this nation back together… Jim, jeez!’ says exasperated Democrat lawmaker

At a contentious House Rules Committee hearing to debate the two resolutions on removing Donald Trump from office, chair Jim McGovern called on representative Jim Jordan to say that Joe Biden won the election “fair and square”.

Mr McGovern said he wanted the American people to hear from some of those who had been pushing the lie that the election was stolen that that was not the case, in order to promote healing in the country.

The Ohio congressman responded that he had previously acknowledged that President-elect Biden would be sworn in on 20 January, but Mr McGovern shot back: “That is not the question I asked. I asked you to lay bare the fact that this lie out there that somehow Joe Biden did not win the election fair and square – he did. The president to this day continues to perpetrate that.”

Mr Jordan, a staunch defender of Mr Trump, refused to say what the chair asked of him, reiterating that Mr Biden would be president, and repeating that there were concerns about the election. However, there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Representative Jordan also spoke of his opposition to using the 25th Amendment to remove Mr Trump from office, saying: “We should use this time to bring the nation together.”

After his call for unity, Mr McGovern responded: “This isn’t a both sides issue. Our Capitol was attacked. Five people are dead. Countless people are wounded. We had a group of domestic terrorists, homegrown fascists, who came to the Capitol building to desecrate this symbol of democracy and freedom, and to do harm to people.”

“I’m glad that all it took for you to call for unity and healing was for our freedom and democracy to be attacked,” he continued. “For the last several months, the gentleman from Ohio and others have given oxygen to the president’s conspiracy theories."

The frustration of Democrats with Mr Jordan continued throughout the meeting, with Congressman Jamie Raskin wondering if there was anything that the president could do that would cause the Ohio lawmaker to not defend him.

"Even after a mob of violent insurrectionists staged a gallows outside of the Congress and chanted, ‘Hang Mike Pence’, even though they tried to force Pence not to do his job, even after five people are dead, we continue to hear these lies and slurs about the 2020 election," said Mr Raskin.

Exasperated with Mr Jordan’s continued allegations about the election, an exasperated Congressman Ed Perlmutter of Colorado said: “We’re trying to bring this nation back together… Jim, jeez!”

Mr Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Congressman Jordan on Monday, crediting his efforts to fight back against the first Democrat-led impeachment in early 2020.