Rep. Jordan acknowledges speaking with Trump on Jan. 6
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) acknowledged Wednesday that he spoke with President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, increasing the likelihood that he will be called to testify before the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters.
“I spoke with him on Jan. 6,” Jordan, a staunch Trump ally, said during an interview with Spectrum News, in which he was asked to clarify previous comments about whether the two had communicated on the day of the attack.
Jordan said that he speaks with Trump frequently and that the two talked as recently as last week. He said he did not remember exactly when on Jan. 6 he spoke with Trump.
“I spoke with him that day, after?” Jordan said. “I think after. I don’t know if I spoke with him in the morning or not. I just don’t know. … I don’t know when those conversations happened.”
On Tuesday, Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), one of the two Republicans whom House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) appointed to the committee, suggested that Jordan could be summoned as a material witness as the panel’s investigation proceeds.
“I think that Congressman Jordan may well be a material witness,” Cheney said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“He’s somebody who was involved in a number of meetings in the lead-up to what happened on January 6th, involved in planning for January 6th, certainly for the objections that day as he said publicly, so he may well be a material witness,” she added.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the select committee, reiterated during an interview on MSNBC on Wednesday that the panel would move quickly to subpoena witnesses.
Later, Pelosi indicated that it would be up to the committee to decide whether to summon fellow House members.
“They will make determinations as to where the facts will take them,” she said. “They have said everything is on the table.”
Jordan was one of two Republican members recommended for the select committee by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) who were later rejected by Pelosi. McCarthy subsequently withdrew all of his picks.
Jordan appeared on Fox News on Tuesday night following the first meeting of the select committee, which featured testimony from four police officers on the scene when the pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol.
During that interview, he appeared to say he had spoken to Trump on Jan. 6 but left some room for doubt.
At first, Jordan offered a vague answer, saying he speaks frequently with Trump but doesn’t think it’s appropriate to share what they talk about.
Asked specifically about Jan. 6 by anchor Bret Baier, Jordan said: “Yes. I mean I’ve talked to the president, I’ve talked to the president so many — I can’t remember all the days I have talked to him, but I have certainly talked to the president.”
Jordan’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
