Jim Jordan’s Rejection of the January 6 Committee Will Cause Damage Beyond This Investigation
Multiple veterans of congressional investigations said Jordan is adding to a precedent where even the most serious congressional inquiries are dismissed as partisan. “I think the long-term ramifications are that it makes it hard for these kind of commissions to ultimately get at the truth,” said Jonathan Bydlak, the policy director for the governance program at the right-leaning R Street Institute think tank. “You basically get an environment where the commission is seen as more partisan because of the fact that that’s what one side is asserting.”
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Bydlak argued there’s little reason to expect Jordan or any other of the growing number of lawmakers the committee wants to come and participate in the investigation to follow their own example when in an investigatory position during Republican control of Congress.
“I think the most likely outcome is that Jim Jordan and Republicans come into office and they do these exact same things, and it doesn’t create an issue for them because there’s really no problem with a kind of hypocrisy,” Bydlak said, going on to say, “So for someone like Jordan the goal is no longer to ultimately get at the truth, especially if it’s on your own side, it’s really to deflect from any good faith effort to get at the truth. And it is to just do those things that will further endear you to the base that you need to get reelected.”
