“We will move on to other services and to the next witnesses,” said Jordan. Democrats immediately interrupted, asking why Jordan wouldn’t allow them to question Schmitt and Landry stood and left the room. The Democrats then tried to get his testimony off the record.
“We cannot prove the truth of what has been said, but the truth of what has been said,” Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.) said. To which Jordan said: “You will be given five minutes here,” Lynch replied, “They are not here,” regarding the witnesses. “They are absent,” he said, “and they run away with your conscience.”
Jordan, speaking of Lynch, said: “They did not flow; They were dismissed as were all the witnesses. As for the two men, Lynch fumed: “You can’t defend two men. That is shame enough. “
Sometimes there was so much shouting and crosstalk that the C-SPAN camera couldn’t record everyone who was talking. At one point, a woman’s voice could be heard saying: “If that’s not allowing weapons to go away, I don’t know what is, Mr. President.” A male voice answered, “Yes, right.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) agreed to the creation of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, as a concession to his party’s hard-hitting GOP conference on the deal to get the votes cast. . The paper has faced criticism that its work lacks clarity and is unfocused, even from some on the right.
Jordan, in Thursday’s hearing, said it is a common practice to ignore current or former members of Congress without asking questions.
Russell Dye, his spokesman, said in a statement, “It is longstanding practice of the House Committee and former members of Congress to allow them to present an opening statement without question,” noting that Democrats had recently had Rep. Jamie Raskin (D. -Md.) to speak to the committee without questions.
Democrats said the comparison was absurd. Lynch said Thursday that the witnesses provided “false” information and “I would like to have an opportunity to cross-examine those witnesses.” Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said Landry is not a member of Congress and therefore “not qualified” for the kind of courtesy Jordan described.
Even by today’s low standards of congressional decorum, Jupiter’s hearing stood out for its rancor and spirit. Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project, a Democratic-leaning watchdog group, said in a statement that the hearing was “very narrow.” The two Republican witnesses did not stick to their defense’s lies, aided and abetted by Jim Jordan. Jordan and Republicans in Congress, Herrig said, “are afraid of the truth.”
Dye said Democrats were “in a charade of parties” in response to the congressional exercise.
