Rep. Jim Jordan: Congress should lead by example and return to work
The House is not expected to return to session until May 4; reaction from Reps. Jim Jordan and Lee Zeldin on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
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House Freedom Caucus Member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, ripped Democrats -- notably presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden -- for shirking their duty to serve the public and using the coronavirus contagion to force through a political wish list.
Jordan said Monday on "The Ingraham Angle" that Biden's recent statement that he would use the economic shutdown to push through "green" legislation and initiatives, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's, D-Calif., continued public criticism of President Trump while she simultaneously announces that Congress will be out of session until May 4, are examples of how Democrats routinely use a crisis to bolster their political goals.
Biden, in remarks on a joint livestream with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said the U.S. "has no choice but to seize this opportunity and create millions of great-paying jobs that [Sanders'] energy plan has suggested and mine as well. ... We take a backseat to no one when it comes to fighting climate change."
Meanwhile, Pelosi recently called Trump's response "almost sinful."
"[There are] two things the Democrats, the left never misses: they never miss an opportunity to advance their left-wing crazy agenda and they never miss an opportunity to attack the president," Jordan said.
"They started attacking the president before he was even elected president."
Of Pelosi, Jordan said he and many other lawmakers are ready to work on behalf of the American people as much as the White House actively is. He criticized how she and the Democratic caucus was intent on inserting ballot harvesting and Green New Deal-type language, and dozens of other unrelated entries to the latest aid bill while currently remaining in recess as the small business assistance fund is close to running out.
"She really likes the way that gavel feels in her hand, so for her, she doesn't look at this as an opportunity to be bipartisan or nonpartisan -- she just wants to expand her majority, she wants to take out the president of the United States and, regardless of the consequences for Americans that need Congress to work, she's just going to do what's best in her own political interests," he said, adding that he has spoken off-the-record to some congressional Democrats who want to get back to work but are held in line by party leadership.
Jordan also slammed state officials who are using the coronavirus outbreak to institute draconian orders, often without going through the democratic process of getting a vote from state legislatures.
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He pointed to his neighboring state of Kentucky, where Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear banned church gatherings on Easter -- and where police were seen taking down license plate numbers of congregants that ignored Beshear. A similar story reportedly played out in the western Mississippi city of Greenville earlier last week.
"The thing that scares me most, Laura, is what we are seeing happened to civil liberties [and] fundamental freedom. The governor of Kentucky says he's going to arrest people at church. We had a prosecutor in one of our [Ohio] counties say he was going to charge people for felonies if they were violating the shelter at home," he said.
Jordan said the Ohio official had claimed that if he were governor of the state he would have already mobilized the National Guard to prevent people from going to church on Easter.
"We've got Google saying they will track and give that information to the government," he added, calling the "scariest" executive erosion of civil liberties is Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti's call for residents to "snitch" on each other for violating stay-at-home orders, promising they will be "rewarded."
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