MAGA Rep Jim Jordan stumbled over his words as he was confronted live on-air with a claim that Donald Trump and his supporters only cry election fraud when they lose.
The Ohio congressman appeared on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday where he was asked multiple times by host Dana Bash whether he thought that 2024 had been a “free and fair election.”
In the final stages of the 2024 race, Trump and his allies appeared to try to lay the groundwork for claims of voter fraud, with several lawsuits being filed in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania.
However, since the president-elect’s sweeping victory over Kamala Harris on Tuesday, such claims have instantly fallen away.
“It seems to me that Republicans claim voting fraud and election integrity when you lose and not when you win,” Bash confronted Jordan.
Jordan pushed back, insisting: “No. As I said before, this election, I think, was the greatest political comeback we’ve ever seen. [Trump] did something that even Teddy Roosevelt couldn’t do, for goodness sake and the country.”
“But you think it was a free and fair election?” Bash pressed. “Last time around, your leader claimed there were problems with fraud.”
The interview turned somewhat fiery, as Jordan then proceeded to speak over Bash, listing off several of the Trump campaign’s policies as reasons for the victory.
“That’s totally fair,” Bash said. “But last time around, it wasn’t so much about the policy differences, or the personality differences, there were false claims about election fraud when Donald Trump lost.
“This time, Donald Trump won, and you think the election was free and fair. You see, there’s a little bit of a disconnect there?”
Jordan fired back: “No I think the Democrats got to ask, why did we go from getting 81 million to getting 70 million? … Maybe it’s not smart to run an election where you have no vision, no record… and just want to call people names.
Bash continued to press him: “Do you believe that the 2024 election was free and fair?”
“I do,” Jordan replied, adding that one of the differences between the 2020 and 2024 elections was Republican “concerns” over mail-in voting. He then attacked the Democratic campaign again.
“They had no vision, no record to run on, and they just wanted to call everyone names,” he said. “Turns out when you, when turns out when you tell people, oh, you’re a fascist, racist, deplorable garbage. They don’t like that.”
Winding down the interview, Bash said: “I just want to say for the record that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in 2020. It went through many, many different court cases… and the name calling was very strong on the Republican side from the former president and you know that.”
