The Jim Jordan Circus Comes to Broadway
Jordan’s effort to embarrass DA Bragg embarrasses Republicans instead
It’s what thinking people everywhere were expecting after House Republican and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan announced his decision to take his committee to the New York City courthouse where Alvin Bragg indicted the disgraced twice-impeached ex-president just weeks ago.
The last time Jordan’s hero, Donald J. Trump, went to NYC, his motorcade was greeted by a crowd shouting, “New York hates Trump!” So it should have surprised no one that yesterday’s proceedings generated ire on both sides.
But Jordan, ever the loyal lackey, made it clear before he packed his bags and brought his traveling circus to town that his goal was to make Trump happy by making DA Bragg look bad. Unfortunately for Jordan, it failed miserably, like all his prior efforts to do Trump’s bidding.
The excuse for Jordan’s traveling show was a lie
Jordan’s stated goal to address the rampant crime in NYC failed partly because there isn’t rampant crime in NYC. Recent reporting shows the overall crime rate is down over 5%, with murders, rapes, and burglaries down by even more.
The decrease in overall crime was largely driven by a 27.8% decrease in murders, 22.1% decrease in rapes, and 15% decrease in burglaries.
While crime was down in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, incidents were up in Queens by 2.1% and by 11.2% on Staten Island — Spectrum News
Furthermore, crime in Jordan’s own district is close to 3x what it is in Manhattan. But not one to let facts stand in the way, Jordan maintained the pretense that his committee’s presence in Manhattan was motivated by concerns about high crime in DA Bragg’s district.
(Interestingly, Trump has already said he can’t possibly get a fair trial in Manhattan and has suggested that the venue for his case be moved to Staten Island — where the crime rate is up by 11.2% — proving once again that he’s more comfortable where there is more crime, not less.)
Republicans heckle during hearings despite Jordan’s attempts to maintain control
At one point, while Democrat Jerry Nadler was speaking, a Jordan fan stood up and began shouting his love for Jordan, then followed with the admonition, “Ralph Nader, you are a disgrace to this country.”
Quick-witted as ever, Adam Schiff replied, “The comments about Ralph Nader are way out of line.” It was the only real humor in an otherwise ridiculous proceeding.
Jordan, to his credit, used his gavel more than once to quiet the rabble-rousers down, but still, nothing of value was accomplished. Instead, it was just another debacle unfolding at taxpayers’ expense. The case Republicans wished to make fell flat, and except for the unintentionally comedic insults hurled by occupants of the peanut gallery, nothing memorable was said.
This wasn’t Jordan’s first failure to impress
You may recall Jordan’s prior attempt to blame Democrats for using the power of the government to censor media. Specifically, Jordan claimed the Biden administration had tried to censor stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop. The result of Jordan’s attempt to use the “Twitter files” to discredit Democrats was to prove that it was Trump, not Biden, who attempted to use his power in office to censor tweets.
And then there was Jordan’s similarly weak attempt to investigate the “weaponization of government,” which proved once again that Jim Jordan doesn’t know how to do his job.
In addition to allowing a few witnesses, billed as “whistleblowers,” to testify without allowing them to be questioned by Democrats on the committee, it was later discovered that none of them were whistleblowers, and all had been identified, coached, and then rewarded for their participation by Trump allies.
Jordan solidifies his record as one of the most ineffective members of Congress
Today’s hearing only confirmed what we already knew: Jim Jordan is a blow-hard with no governing skills. The Center of Effective Lawmaking issued a report in which they rated the effectiveness of members of Congress. They rated Jim Jordan 202 out of 205 — making him one of the least effective lawmakers to hold office in the past two years.
In response to the report, Republicans were appalled and made clear their preference for rating effectiveness based on influence, willingness to shout inappropriately during Congressional hearings, and a fondness for making unsubstantiated allegations against political opponents. Moreover, it rankled them that the study’s authors chose to focus on something else: the ability to create legislation that gets passed and becomes law.
Given the author’s chosen area of focus, Jim Jordan is a dismal failure. The irony is that Jim Jordan doesn’t seem to know this. If he did, he probably would not have chosen to take his show on the road today, where he should have known to expect less-than-stellar results.
As expected, Democrats on the committee were quick to point out that Jim Jordan and his Republican allies have shown no interest in addressing the wave of gun violence gripping the nation, so Jordan’s insistence on taking the committee to NYC under the pretense of concerns about violence in the city, was hardly convincing. Instead, it was just another attempt by Jordan to use his power to discredit someone else. And as usual, it didn’t work.
Democrat Jerry Nadler said it best, “Jim Jordan has engaged in a lot of political theater recently. But he should know better than to take his tired act to Broadway.”
Indeed.