In a rare national interview outside of Fox, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan was called out for a Trump indictment defense that makes no sense by CNN’s Dana Bash.
Jordan’s claim was that Trump actually declassified the documents while he was president, so therefore, there was no crime committed.
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Jordan kept claiming that the documents were already declassified, so CNN’s Dana Bash asked him point blank, “Do you have evidence that the president, when he was president, now former president, actually declassified these documents before he took them?”
Jordan answered, “ I go on the president’s word. He said he did.”
Chair Jordan kept repeating his talking point that the documents were already declassified and the Supreme Court said that presidents can do what they want with declassified documents, so at one point, Bash said to him, ” Sir, you can keep talking about this. I want to talk about the substance of this indictment. I want to talk about the alleged obstruction in the indictment. ”
The big problem for Jordan came when he was asked about Trump admitting on tape that the documents were not declassified. Jordan tried to spin the tape and parse it, as somehow meaning that down is up and the documents were really declassified, but Bash responded, ” But he says point blank, on tape as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t. He says in his own words it’s on tape as part of this indictment that he did not declassify the material. Therefore, it is classified. ”
Jordan could only respond with, “Dana, saying he could have, saying he could have is not the same as saying he didn’t.”
Bash later told Jordan that he wasn’t making sense, “He is saying point blank in this audio tape he did not declassify it. What you’re saying just doesn’t make sense on its face.”
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Dana Bash to Jim Jordan, “What you are saying doesn’t make sense on its face.” pic.twitter.com/AEPyeYTbR2
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) June 11, 2023
Dana Bash telling Jim Jordan that he doesn’t make sense sums up the whole interview. Any defense of Trump has to be based on magical thinking, nonsense, a complete denial of the facts, and Trump’s own statements on tape.
Jim Jordan made no sense, and if this interview was a dry run for the Republican defense of Trump, the GOP is in big trouble.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
