Rep. Ruben Gallego Calls Rep. ‘Gym’ Jordan A Traitor

Back in October, Ohio congressman “Gym” Jordan struggled to explain how many times he spoke with Donald Trump on January 6. He was clearly dissembling trying not to be pinned down in his answer. Jim Jordan: I ‘Don’t Recall’ Number of Times Trump and I Spoke on Jan. 6:

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told a House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that he couldn’t recall “the number of times” he’d spoken with then-President Donald Trump on the day of the insurrection. Jordan floundered through his answer to the committee during a Wednesday meeting on potentially holding former top Trump aide Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for evading a congressional subpoena. “Of course I talked to the president,” Jordan said. “I talked to him that day. I’ve been clear about that. I don’t recall the number of times, but it’s not about me. I know you want to make it about that.”

Oh, but it is about you, you lying seditious conspiracy co-conspirator. The January 6 Committee no doubt has your phone and text records:

As “somebody who was involved in a number of meetings in the lead-up to what happened on January 6th, involved in planning for January 6th,” Jordan may well be summoned as a material witness as the committee’s investigation into the Capitol riot continues, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), a panel member, said in July.

Rep. Adam Schiff read one of “Gym” Jordan’s tweets into the record when the January 6 Committee was preparing to vote to hold Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress. The authors of the tweets were not revealed by the January 6 Committee, but chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson promised that the Republican members of Congress who conspired with Mark Meadows and Team Trump “will be revealed soon.”

The Huffington Post reports, Rep. Jim Jordan Admits To Sending One Of The Texts Revealed By Jan. 6 Committee:

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) confirmed Wednesday that he forwarded a message to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 5 that was revealed in part this week by the House select committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6.

The text outlined a legal argument that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to interfere in the certification of the Electoral College count in the 2020 election as pro-Trump Republicans tried to nullify Joe Biden’s win.

Part of it was presented during a Monday hearing of the House select committee, but it was attributed to an unnamed lawmaker.

Joseph Schmitz, a conservative attorney who once served as national security adviser on former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, sent the legal theory to Jordan, who then forwarded it to Meadows, a spokesperson for Jordan told Politico.

Conservative allies of Jordan complained that the shortened version of the text read by Rep. Adam Schiff was misrepresenting his message. “But, but, you didn’t publish his full incriminating tweet.” “Gym” Jordan went on Sean Hannity’s show to complain about the editing and the January 6 Committee being mean to him. OK – these are not the brightest criminals in the world.

The full text begins with that portion and goes on to detail the supposed legal framework to enable Pence to overturn the election.

It was as follows, according to news outlets including the right-wing website The Federalist, which first reported it:

“On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence. ‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.’ The court in Hubbard v. Lowe reinforced this truth: ‘That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.’ 226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 654 (1916). Following this rationale, an unconstitutionally appointed elector, like an unconstitutionally enacted statute, is no elector at all.’”

The Jan. 6 committee took responsibility for adding the punctuation and acknowledged it had trimmed the text before publicizing it.

“The Select Committee is responsible for and regrets the error,” a spokesperson told several news outlets Wednesday.

So Rep. “Gym” Jordan and his right-wing allies sought to distract and deflect with a complaint about editing from the larger relevant point: “Gym” Jordan was a seditious conspiracy co-conspirator with Mark Meadows and Team Trump, and the January 6 Committee has the goods on him.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell in a commentary on Wednesday night systematically destroyed Rep. “Gym” Jordan. (Sorry, the transcript is not yet available).

Lawrence O’Donnell followed this up with an interview of Arizona’s Rep. Ruben Gallego, who unsparingly called “Gym” Jordan a traitor. ‘Jim Jordan Is a Traitor’ Over Mark Meadows Texts, Says Fellow Congressman:

Gallego, who represents Arizona’s 7th congressional district, told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday: “Look, Jim Jordan is a traitor. He’s a traitor to the Constitution of the United States. He has been a traitor to the Constitution of the United States for quite a while, and now we actually have it in text.”

“But we shouldn’t be surprised and why is anybody surprised?” he said, saying Jordan had lied on the floor of the House of Representatives about the 2020 election.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) after Jim Jordan revealed he sent that Pence text to Mark Meadows:

"He’s a traitor to the Constitution of the United States, he has been a traitor to the Constitution of the United States for a while! Why is anybody surprised?" pic.twitter.com/35e71NQgi8

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) December 16, 2021

“My biggest issue isn’t Jim Jordan. My issue is the fact that there’s a lot of people out there that are not taking this seriously,” Gallego went on. “The fact that there is a slow-moving coup that is happening right now all over this country that are led by the Jim Jordans and other people.”

Gallego said the “coup” involved winning elected office, including seats in state houses, in order to overturn the results of future elections.

“The coup is ongoing,” Gallego said. “The traitors are still there and they’re gonna continue to try to destroy our Constitution every opportunity they have.”