Once again, we can count on the useless Dana Bash to allow Republicans like Jim Jordan to spew lies with no pushback.
Jordan made an appearance on Sunday’s State of the Union on CNN, and was asked by Bash about Trump’s threats to “prosecute Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Liz Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, General Mark Milley, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, New York A.G. Letitia James,” and others, and whether Jordan supports Trump “using the Justice Department to go after the people who disagree with him.”
Jordan responded by immediately lying about what Trump did during his first term, and Bash just went right along with the lies while continuing to try to get Jordan to answer her initial question, which, of course, he didn’t.
JORDAN: He didn’t do it his first term. What I support is stopping…
BASH: Right, but this is a second term.
JORDAN: What I support is stopping this lawfare, stopping this political targeting, political cases. We all know the Fani Willis case, the Alvin Bragg case, and the Jack Smith cases were all driven by politics. The American people understood it. That’s why that they had this overwhelming win, one of the reasons of this overwhelming win for President Trump.
So I’m against the retribution. I’m against the Justice Department saying if you’re a mom and dad showing up at a school board meeting, we’re going to investigate you. I’m against the FBI putting together a memorandum at the Richmond field office which said if you’re a pro- life Catholic, you’re an extremist. We want we want all that to stop.
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: I just want to put a button this. So what you are saying is that all of the times that President Trump said so many things about people that he promised that he would go after them and prosecute them, you are going to encourage him not to do that?
JORDAN: Well, all I know is what he — he didn’t do that.
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: I know, but we’re talking about…
JORDAN: He talked about “Lock her up” when he was talking about his opponent in 2016, Secretary Clinton, talked about “Lock her up.” He didn’t do that. He didn’t go — but the Democrats went after Trump. And everyone understands what they did is wrong.
BASH: I’m talking about Donald Trump’s second term, going forward. Since then, he has said many, many times…
(CROSSTALK)
JORDAN: I don’t think any of that’s going to happen because we’re the party who’s against political prosecution. We’re the party who’s against going after your opponents using lawfare.
In fact, I think this is one of the issues that the American people said…
BASH: So it was just campaign rhetoric? It wasn’t real?
JORDAN: Well, I think he’s pointing out what’s going on, the retribution — actually, Liz Cheney in January 6 went after President Trump, said things that weren’t accurate, I think, in their report. The other individuals he’s talked about have been part of this retribution going after President Trump. Never forget, it started clear back before he was in office. They spied on his campaign in 2016.
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: I know, but I am not talking about…
JORDAN: So, for eight years, they have been going after President Trump.
BASH: He won. He won.
JORDAN: He sure did. He won big.
BASH: He won. He won big.
JORDAN: Thirty states.
BASH: So my question and what people want to know is what he is going to do.
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: Just, for example, two days ago, he called for investigations into anyone spreading rumors…
(CROSSTALK)
JORDAN: Dana, I think he’s going to do this.
I think he’s going to secure the border. I think he’s going to get rid of this crazy inflation that’s hurting middle-class and working-class families, hurting our economy. I think he’s going to get back to commonsense energy policy. I think he’s going to focus on protecting the First Amendment.
I mean, think about this. Did you ever think you would see Donald Trump, Elon Musk, RFK Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard on the same team? They’re on the same team because people — because of the attack on free speech, the attack on the First Amendment. He’s going to focus on those things that the American people elected him to do.
And with that, Bash just threw up her hands and moved onto the next topic. As we discussed here, Trump absolutely tried to get the DOJ to prosecute both Hillary Clinton and James Comey, but was stopped by his his chief counsel, Don McGahn.
Here’s more from Steve Benen on this lie, which he describes as “one of the more demonstrably ridiculous myths in Republican politics.”
Why Trump’s lies about trying to prosecute Hillary Clinton matter:
Look, I realize that contemporary GOP politics is defined in large part by its willingness to rewrite recent history. It’s a subject I explored in some detail in my recent book. But the idea that Trump gave Clinton some kind of pass remains one of the more ridiculous myths that too many Republicans insist on peddling.
Benen goes through a long list of Republicans who have been repeating the lie in his article before getting to this dose of reality about what actually happened.
To the extent that reality still has any meaning, let’s review the receipts. In Trump’s first year in the White House — after the 2016 election was over and Clinton largely withdrew from public view — the then-president publicly pleaded with the Justice Department to go after Clinton.
A year later, in 2018, Trump told the White House counsel that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute Clinton. As former special counsel Robert Mueller documented in his findings, it was around this time that Trump pressured then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to go after Clinton.
Ahead of Election Day 2020 — nearly four years after Clinton’s defeat — Trump again publicly called for the Democrat’s incarceration and lobbied then-Attorney General Bill Barr to prosecute Clinton for reasons unknown.
None of this was kept secret. It happened out in the open. We all saw it play out in public. As the GOP nominee and his surrogates continue to brag about his magnanimity toward Clinton, they’re asking us to forget what we all saw with our own eyes.
Benen concludes with this:
As for why this still matters, the problem is not just the fact that Trump, Donalds, Sununu and others are peddling a demonstrably false version of the recent past, the problem is also the significance of their lie as it relates to the near future: If Americans want to know whether the Republican candidate will target his foes and abuse his powers in a second term, it’s highly relevant to know that he targeted his foes and abused his powers in his first term.
And that’s never going to happen as long as our legacy media is completely broken and refuses to ever hold Republicans’ feet to the fire when they lie to their faces as Jim Jordan did here.
