Jim Jordan

Jordan: GOP Must Do What We Promised

August 21, 2018 by GregC

Listen to “Jordan: GOP Must Do What We Promised” on Spreaker.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, says he is focusing on helping Republicans retain their House majority before he worries about his bid for Speaker of the House but he says GOP lawmakers need to prove to voters they will do what they’ve promised the past four election cycles and that’s exactly how he would lead in the next Congress.

The race for speaker was triggered by Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision that he is retiring from Congress come January. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Calif., is considered Ryan’s natural successor, but Jordan says the past two years have shown plenty of conservative actions from President Trump but very little from Congress in comparison.

He applauds Trump’s actions on the Iran deal, moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and cutting taxes and regulations. He says the legislative branch is failing to do its part.

“We certainly helped with the tax cuts and we shouldn’t downplay that. But where’s the border security wall we promised? Where’s the Obamacare repeal? Where’s the welfare reform? Where’s defunding Planned Parenthood? Where are those key issues that we told the American people we were going to get done?

“We haven’t accomplished those, so if we keep the majority and I’m given the chance to lead the House, we’re going to focus on one simple message: doing what we told the American people we were going to do,” said Jordan.

Jordan chalks up the dearth of legislative achievements to “lack of political will” on the part of current Republican leaders. He says that cannot continue for another two years.

“It boils down to a simple fact. You’ve to be willing to actually engage in the debate and have the fight. You can’t just forfeit before the referee even blows the whistle and starts the game,” said Jordan.

He says the point of no return on the existing GOP leadership came earlier this year when it snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and agreed to major spending increases in an omnibus bill.

“Instead of doing what the swamp always does, which is spend more money on everything and make up excuses for why we can’t do what wee told the people we were going to do and more importantly what they elected us to do, we should have fought on that omnibus spending bill.

“Remember, (Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer had shut the government down before that. When Chuck Schumer said amnesty was more important than funding our troops, we were well-positioned, we were poised, we were right on the cusp of victory, and yet we did what the swamp always does.

“We were ready to win and do what had to be done for national defense, hold the line on the other spending, fund the border security wall. We were in a position to do that and yet our leadership didn’t do that and Republicans failed to deliver on the promises we had made,” said Jordan.

He says Republicans have a chance to prove they can be trusted when they return to work next month.

“When we go back in September, we better put the border security wall funding on the spending bill and send that to the Senate,” said Jordan.

With all of the alleged failures of Republicans to fulfill promises in this Congress, why should GOP voters bother heading to the polls in November? Jordan says the alternative will be disastrous.

“You elect Democrats, they’re going to raise your taxes, they’re going to abolish ICE, they’re going to socialize medicine and they’re going to impeach the president,” said Jordan.

Jordan’s efforts to ascend the Republican leadership ladder was quickly met with accusations that he knew about and failed to report the sexual abuse of wrestlers by a team doctor while an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University in the 1980s and 1990s.

Those accusations were met with a long list of former coaches and athletes who said Jordan never covered anything up and never would. Some of the allegations were eventually retracted.

Jordan says the bias of the media was on full display with that story.

“If you’re a conservative, they’re out to get you. If you support the president and you’re fighting to support the president, particularly in this issue of the Department of Justice, they’re out to get you,” said Jordan.

He also categorically denies any such cover-up and says it’s completely contrary to his fighting spirit.

“I’ve taken on the Speaker of the House from my own state. I’ve taken on the IRS when they were targeting people. I’ve taken on the Department of Justice and the FBI for the wrong they did when they took this dossier and took it to a secret court to spy on President Trump’s campaign.

“The idea that I would not stand up for our wrestlers is just ridiculous and everyone sees through that story,” said Jordan.

‘The Deep State Strikes Again’ in Jordan Controversy

July 16, 2018 by GregC

Prominent conservative Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is battling allegations that he helped cover up sexual abuse at Ohio State University, and a longtime conservative activist believes the controversy is simply an effort to tarnish Jordan and block him from becoming Speaker of the House.

“The deep state strikes again,” said Richard Viguerie, who pioneered direct mail in political campaigning. He is also chairman of conservativehq.com and author of “Takeover: The 100-Year War for the Soul of the GOP and How Conservatives Can Finally Win It.”

“Anytime conservatives look like they’re making any progress or gain in dismantling the deep state or challenging their position, authority, or power, they do whatever is necessary to set the conservative cause back.

“That’s all this is. They’re in a panic mode that Jim Jordan could be the next Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives,” said Viguerie.

While not at Ohio State 20-30 years ago, Viguerie says grassroots conservatives across the nation have the highest regard for Rep. Jordan, one of the founders of the House Freedom Caucus.

“I put Jim at the very highest level of character, of values. He’s a very serious person. To the extent that I know him, I have nothing but the highest admiration and respect for him. Quite frankly, every conservative without exception that I know at the national, state, and local level feels the same way,” said Viguerie.

Numerous former Ohio State wrestlers are also coming to Jordan’s defense.

But “deep state” is a general term. If this is nothing but a smear campaign, who exactly is behind it? Viguerie says the answer should be pretty obvious.

“Who benefits? Who would benefit by the establishment staying in power? That’s who you can look to for the perpetrators of this,” said Viguerie. “Without naming names here, the Republican establishment, the Washington, D.C., establishment is going to benefit by the present leadership staying in power.”

Viguerie says the GOP congressional leaders are a major disappointment to many grassroots conservatives on a host of key issues, starting with health care. He says Republicans passed full repeal of Obamacare time after time when leaders knew it would never become law. Once the GOP controlled Congress and the White House, things changed.

“They wouldn’t bring it up for a vote anymore. They were afraid that it would be undone,” said Viguerie.

Jordan was perhaps the most vocal conservative House member demanding an up-or-down vote on a full repeal.

Viguerie says there are other issues involved as well.

“They don’t want to dismantle the administrative state, build a wall, (pass) serious immigration reform that really controls the border,” he said.

He believes the D.C. establishment fears Jordan because many conservatives see him as a leader.

“In the 60 years almost that I’ve been involved at the national level of the conservative movement, he number one thing we’ve needed all those years above anything else is leadership.

“Jim Jordan, through the Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives, is providing that leadership, one of the very few Republicans in the country that is actually providing leadership that the grassroots can look up too,” said Viguerie.

But for Jordan to be a threat, he would have to be in a position to win the support of a majority of House Republicans in the next leadership election. House Freedom Caucus members have historically fallen well short in challenging the likes of former House Speaker John Boehner.

Viguerie says Jordan is in position to win that kind of support within the House GOP Conference.

“The grassroots is very unhappy with the present leadership. I think there’s a lot of people who voted with establishment candidates in the past and realizing that the establishment is not producing for the voters, for the American people.

“With a new Congress coming in here (following the 2018 midterms), I think a conservative candidate like Jim Jordan would be very, very competitive,” said Viguerie.

Rep. Jordan Details Pursuit of Truth on Dossier, Unmasking

December 19, 2017 by GregC

Rep. Jim Jordan says the connection between the Democrats and an anti-Trump dossier is well established and he says the big questions now are whether the dossier was the grounds for a FISA warrant to conduct surveillance on the Trump campaign and whether the FBI and Justice Department used it as an “insurance policy” against a Trump presidency.

Last week, Jordan and other lawmakers grilled Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about the work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team, with a special emphasis on recently fired FBI official Peter Strzok and recently demoted Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.

Strzok was fired by Mueller, allegedly for his barrage of anti-Trump text messages to his mistress, FBI attorney Lisa Page. However, in addition to the political chatter came a Strzok text suggesting he expected Trump to lose the election but was planning to take action if the GOP nominee won.

“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” texted Strzok. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40,” he added in a text dated Aug. 15, 2016.

Jordan thinks there is a major story behind that text and likely explains why Mueller kicked Strzok to the curb in the Russia probe.

“Remember, Peter Strzok is Mr. Super Agent Guy at the FBI. He ran the Clinton (email) investigation, interviewed (Cheryl) Mills, (Huma) Abedin, and Sec. Clinton. He’s the guy who did the famous exoneration letter that changed the term ‘gross negligence’ – a crime – to ‘extreme carelessness.’ He’s also the guy who ran the Russia investigation and interviewed Mike Flynn.

“So he gets kicked off the Mueller team and we’re told it’s because of anti-Trump text messaging and Lisa Page. My belief is it’s got to be more than that. Because as I said in committee a couple of weeks ago, if you kicked everyone off the Mueller team who is anti-Trump, you wouldn’t have anybody left,” said Jordan.

So what might be the real reason for Strzok’s dismissal?

“It has to be something more and my contention is it goes to the dossier, the dossier that I believe was used for securing the warrants to spy on Americans, the dossier that was put into the application that was taken to the FISA court to get warrants to spy on Americans associated with the Trump campaign.

“I believe Peter Strzok, who was the deputy head of counterintelligence at the FBI and ran both the Clinton and Russia investigations, probably has his fingerprints all over that application,” alleged Jordan.

While Strzok’s direct involvement with the dossier has yet to be proved, Jordan says the FBI’s connection to the dossier seems pretty clear.

“Did they pay Christopher Steele, the guy who wrote the dossier? It’s been reported that he was reimbursed by the FBI. Why are they paying the guy who was paid at the same time by the Clinton campaign. If the answer to that question is yes, I think that shows that this took place,” said Jordan.

He says the rest of the money trail is very well established.

“The Clinton campaign and the DNC paid Russians to influence the campaign. They paid the law firm, who paid Fusion GPS, who paid Christopher Steele, who took that money and paid Russians to get false information that was used to go get warrants to spy on Americans.

Jordan adds that if the FBI did pay for the dossier, the other lingering question is even more troubling.

“If that in fact happened, that definitely shows there was an effort to go after the Trump people and the Trump campaign with this ridiculous report the Clinton campaign paid for that we call a dossier,” said Jordan, who is stunned that Mueller is spending all his energies looking at possible crimes on the GOP side of this campaign.

“[The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee] paid Russians with campaign dollars to influence the election and what’s Mueller’s investigation looking at? The other campaign,” said Jordan.

When it comes to Bruce Ohr, at first blush there appears to be circumstantial evidence of impropriety, as a result of Ohr’s consultation with Fusion GPS Co-Founder Glenn Simpson and the revelation that Ohr’s wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion GPS during the final months of the campaign.

Jordan says it goes a lot deeper than that.

“His wife not only worked there, she was hired specifically for the Russian project. Second, Bruce Ohr met with Christopher Steele during the campaign. So at the same time the DNC is paying Christopher Steele to put together this dossier, he’s also meeting with a top Justice official. That’s kind of strange,” said Jordan.

But he says the unlikely coincidences keep coming, mostly notably the post-election meeting between Ohr and Simpson.

“Did they meet to get their story straight and get their story straight and figure out, ‘We did this. What do we have to do to correct it and get our story straight.’ Or – maybe and – did they meet to say, ‘Maybe it’s time to double down. Maybe it’s time to go after President-Elect Trump,” said Jordan.

Jordan is increasingly confident his suspicions are correct given that the “unmasking” of Trump campaign officials began during the transition period.

“Never forget, it was during the transition, from Election Day until Inauguration Day, that we started to see all of this unmasking and all of these leaks from the intelligence community,” said Jordan, suggesting that timeline alone requires detailed testimony from Ohr.

Jordan says Congress will continue to pursue answers, beginning with deposing Strzok, Ohr, Page, and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He also wants to see the FISA application and what evidence was submitted to obtain warrants. He also wants all of this to take place in public so the American people can evaluate the facts for themselves.

The congressman also demands a second special counsel to look into all this since – if there’s any fire to the smoke – the Justice Department and FBI are incapable of investigating the matter.

“I don’t like special counsels. I never have. But I don’t know any other remedy,” said Jordan.

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