Republican Party leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives in the run-up to recent impeachment inquiry hearings assigned Congressman Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, to the House Intelligence Committee specifically to help articulate the GOP case against impeaching President Donald Trump.
Over multiple days of questioning, Jordan has consistently and effectively laid out basic facts to undermine sustained efforts to demonstrate that President Trump intentionally withheld an official head-of-state meeting, and foreign aid to the Ukrainian government in exchange for a commitment to investigate Hunter Biden’s role on the board of directors for a Ukrainian energy company while Joe Biden was still serving as Vice-President.
“It’s sad what the Democrats are putting our country through,” Jordan related in social media posts following the final hearings in the impeachment inquiry.
Four facts of the impeachment case will never change, Jordan has emphasized:
• Call transcripts between U.S dignitaries and their counterparts in Ukraine show no link between aid and investigations;
• President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky both are quoted as saying there was, “no pressure” to conduct any investigations;
• Ukraine was unaware that aid was being held up at the time of a July 25 telephone call between presidents of the two countries; and
• Ukraine never took any action to get aid released.
The congressman has asserted Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives had pre-determined to seek impeachment of the president, and notes that five Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee had voted to move forward with impeachment before the dubious July 25 phone conversation between presidents Trump and Zelensky, which Democrats have since latched onto as evidence of a scheme to “bribe,” or “extort” the government of Ukraine.
Jordan has also noted that a bi-partisan group of U.S. Senators met Sept. 5 with President Zelensky to discuss the the delay in foreign aid.
“If ever there was a time for Zelensky to mention any supposed pressure or pushing, that was the time,” Jordan has said. “But it didn’t happen, because there was no pressure.”
The congressman has further pointed out that President Trump himself was quoted in witness testimony as having said, “I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. I want Zelensky to do what he ran on.
“The facts are on the president’s side, Jordan said. “The process certainly is not.”
Republican members of the Intelligence committee have decried the impeachment hearings as a one-sided process, pointing out that the Democratic chairman of the committee decides, “which witnesses testify, if any, and when witnesses testify.
Despite the process, Jordan has been steadfast that there was no wrongdoing, and consistently has pointed out the absence of direct witness testimony during the hearings.