Trump Won, So Jim Jordan Is No Longer Worried About Election Fraud
Rep. Jim Jordan was a key figure in Jan. 6 and the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, claiming there was widespread voter fraud despite all evidence to the contrary. So it’s certainly a change of tune when the Republican congressman acknowledges the 2024 election was free and fair. The notable difference between these two elections is, of course, that Jordan’s preferred candidate won.
CNN’s Dana Bash confronted Jordan with this uncomfortable truth on Sunday’s State of the Union.
“In the run-up to the election, even on election night itself, Donald Trump baselessly accused Democrats of cheating. Soon as the results started to come in and showed them going his way, he stopped,” Bash said. “I haven’t seen you or your colleagues claiming any election irregularities, no rampant voting fraud this time. It seems to me that Republicans claim voting fraud and election integrity when you lose and not when you win.”
Jordan, also a key figure in the GOP’s failed attempt to impeach Biden, responded by claiming this election was “the greatest political comeback we have ever seen.” But that raises the question: How can it be a comeback if Jordan believes that Democrats were “trying to steal the election” as he said in 2020?
In December 2020, Jordan said that Trump “should not concede,” adding, “Everyone knows instinctively, everyone knows there are problems with this election.”
Jordan’s repeated claims of election fraud in 2020 may have even cost him the speakership in the House when he ran for the position in 2022.
When Bash again asked Jordan about the integrity of the 2024 election, he tried to dodge the question until she finally boxed him in.
“Do you believe the 2024 election was free and fair?” Bash asked.
“I do. I do,” the congressman responded.
“And why was it different from 2020, when he lost? Is that the only difference?” Bash questioned.
“No, there were concerns about 2020 with all the mail-in voting that happened,” Jordan said. “What, Pennsylvania had, like, two-point-something million mail-in ballots come in without any signature verification, which was required under Pennsylvania statute. So there were all kinds of concerns with how the 2020 election was carried out.”
“OK, but there was absolutely no widespread fraud,” Bash said. There was also plenty of mail-in voting taking place in Pennsylvania and the rest of the country in 2024.
Even without evidence of widespread fraud, right-wing activists and Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania were challenging voters’ applications for mail-in ballots this year. Yet mere days after Trump won, those challenges were withdrawn in multiple counties, according to NPR.
“Bottom line is these are meritless challenges that never should have been made, that inconvenienced thousands of voters and made it much more difficult for countless elections officials and workers to be able to do their jobs at a very difficult and stressful time,” Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, told NPR.
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