Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) tore into his Democratic colleagues Tuesday for having no “legislative initiatives” apart from attacking President Donald Trump.
The comments came during a contentious House Oversight Committee hearing on climate change and its impact on national security. Former Secretary of State John Kerry was called before the committee as a witness, and criticized the Trump administration for the alleged committee it plans to create to study climate change.
Kerry called the task force a “council of doubter and deniers,” though Jordan pointed out that it hasn’t even been formed yet.
“I’m just asking the fundamental question: how can it be a council of doubters and deniers when it hasn’t even been formed?” Jordan asked.
.@JohnKerry calls the President's climate change task force "a council of doubters and deniers."
Apparently Mr. Kerry can foretell the future! The task force hasn't even been formed yet! But @OversightDems just spent 4 hours talking about it. pic.twitter.com/6AIX3Tn8It
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) April 9, 2019
“Well, it would be,” Kerry responded, to which Jordan jokingly said the former Obama diplomat “can foretell the future.”
“You already know who’s on the council and you already know the conclusion they’re going to reach even though there’s been no council formed and no executive order creating the council in the first place,” Jordan continued.
Kerry was one of dozens of former national security officials who sent a letter last month to the Trump administration expressing concern over “reports that National Security Council officials are considering forming a committee to dispute and undermine military and intelligence judgments on the threat posed by climate change.”
Earlier in Tuesday’s hearing, Jordan said that for the “first three months of the 116th Congress the Democrats’ focus has been on one thing: attacking the president.”
“Not addressing the emergency on the border. Not addressing the $22 trillion debt or the opioid crisis, but a relentless pursuit and focus on the president,” he continued, detailing the Democratic Party’s attempts to get its hands on Trump’s tax returns and business records.
“I’m not sure most Americans can name any legislative initiative of the Democrats this Congress, with the possible exception of one. Maybe they can name one: the Green New Deal,” Jordan said. “My guess is a lot of Americans can name it because it’s so radical.”
Jordan later suggested that Tuesday’s hearing wasn’t about “getting the truth,” but was about “the Green New Deal and the regulations and central government planning and the politics that come with it.”
“I think it would be devastating for middle-class families in all our districts all across this great country—driving up the cost of energy, which therefore drives up the costs of other goods and services,” the Ohio congressman said, and concluded by noting that not a single member of Congress voted in favor of the Green New Deal.
“So I hope the focus today is actually on the issue that we’re supposed to be talking about and not on politics and not on attacking the president like we’ve done for the first three months of this Congress,” he said.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jim Jordan” by Jim Jordan.
