January 10, 2022

Rep. Jim Jordan pulled a flip-flop Sunday night and is now refusing to cooperate with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.

Back in July, Jordan told CNN's Manu Raju that he had "nothing to hide" if he was called to give testimony to the committee.

Jordan said then that he had conversations all the time with the former ex-president.

Raju asked Jordan directly, "But if they said, if they [the Committee] asked you. What would you say?"

"If they called me I got nothing to hide," Jordan said.

The Ohio Congressman repeated the same line in November when he told the Rules Committee that he also had "nothing to hide."

However, on Sunday, Jordan tweeted this long-winded statement refusing to cooperate.

“This request is far outside the bounds of any legitimate inquiry, violates core constitutional principles, and would serve to further erode legislative norms.”

It was hard to take him seriously back in July, since he's been trying to muddy the waters on what he "discussed" with Donald Trump during the attack on the US Capitol. And Republicans have soiled their image and integrity so much since 2015 that their word is meaningless.

But when Congressman tells the press he's good to go with any investigation and then when he's asked runs away, that's as cowardly as it gets.

As our friend Steve Benen reports:

In case this isn't obvious, the Republican is in a unique position to help shed light on the events surrounding last year's political violence. The New York Times recently reported, for example, that Jordan attended crisis meetings at Trump campaign headquarters as early as Nov. 9, just two days after Joe Biden became president-elect.

The Times also reported over the summer that the far-right congressman participated in a meeting at the White House two weeks before the Jan. 6 attack, at which he plotted with Trump on how best to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Jordan helped make his career out of hyping the tragedy of Benghazi over and over again for years, when it was clear there was nothing to uncover.

Now, he's a key witness, and may even have been a participant in an attempted coup of our Democratic process.

So now he's reneged on his willingness to testify? Sounds like he has much to hide after all.

Once a coward, always a coward.

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