Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) went viral Sunday morning after getting in a heated exchange with CNN host Jake Tapper on Sunday morning’s “State of the Union.”
Tapper and Jordan went back and forth on a number of topics related to the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
“You really don’t have any problem with the President of the United States leveraging his power to push a foreign leader to investigate a political rival?” Tapper began the interview.
“What I have a problem with is what the Democrats are doing. Understand what happened here, Jake. You had a bureaucrat who didn’t like the president,” Jordan said.
“What are you talking about?” Tapper interrupted.
“We know he didn’t like the president. The inspector general says there is an ‘indica of arguable political bias.’ That is Washington speak for this guy didn’t like the president,” Jordan said in reference to an inspector general’s analysis of the whistleblower complaint.
He then unloaded on Democrats for going “after this president no matter what.”
“Let me finish my statement. A bureaucrat who didn’t like the president files a claim saying the president did something wrong on a call. This guy wasn’t on the call. Someone else told him about the call. So the White House does something that’s never been done before. They actually released the transcript. We see the transcript—there’s nothing there. But the Democrats say we don’t care. We’re going to move towards impeachment. They don’t care about the facts. They don’t care about the truth,” Jordan said.
.@jaketapper presses GOP Rep. Jim Jordan about the facts of the President’s phone call with Ukraine and calling into question the credibility of the whistleblower complaint. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/ey5PrSKzTk
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) September 29, 2019
“And you know why we know that? Because Nancy Pelosi did a press conference the day before and said she was going to move towards impeachment—the day before she even saw the transcript. That just shows you that these folks are bound and determined to go after this president no matter what. They put the country through three years of this false Trump-Russia collusion issue,” he continued.
Jordan argued that the whistleblower lacks credibility because he didn’t have firsthand knowledge of the conversation and allegedly had a bias against the president.
“Two things you look at to determine the credibility of a so-called whistleblower when they’re coming forward. First, did they have firsthand knowledge? And second, what is there motivation? Was there some kind of bias? This individual has problems on both of those counts,” Jordan said. “And now the Democrats are saying because of this whistleblower we’re going to impeach the president.”
Tapper then proceeded to play a number of clips of Republicans taking issue with President Trump’s phone call with the president of Ukraine.
“That’s your fellow Ohio Republican Mike Turner,” Tapper said after one clip, noting that Turner said the phone call was “not OK.”
“I don’t have any problem with the call. We’ve now seen the transcript. The president of Ukraine said there was no pressure, he was not pushed. Look, if Democrats want to impeach because Rudy Giuliani talked to a couple Ukrainians, good luck with that. I don’t think the American people think that’s an appropriate course of action. I think they see this for what it is. This is just one of the many and unending attacks the Democrats have leveled against this president,” Jordan replied. “So I respectfully disagree with my colleagues who think there needs to be a further inquiry here.”
Turner did say the conversation with President Volodymyr Zelensky was “not OK,” but he also called impeachment an “assault” on the electorate, which Tapper and CNN left out of their coverage.
The interview concluded with a tense exchange between Jordan and Tapper on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine. At one point, Jordan said it was “amazing the gymnastics you guys will go through” to defend Biden.
“Sir, it’s not gymnastics. It’s facts,” Tapper replied. “And I would think somebody who’s been accused of things in the last year or two would be more sensitive about throwing out wild allegations against people.”
The full interview can be watched below:
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jim Jordan” by CNN.
