GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, was thrown into the spotlight this week after it was revealed that he forwarded a text message to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject some electoral college votes on Jan. 6 in order to keep Donald Trump in power.
In response to the report, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) called Jordan “a traitor to the Constitution.”
During an appearance on MSNBC on Friday Gallego defended his use of the word “traitor” and said Jordan is “more dangerous” than the rioters who stormed the Capitol wearing camouflage and carrying Confederate flags.
“As a matter of fact, he’s more dangerous than the yahoos, because he actually has access to power, access to information, and actually knows the process of how to stall democracy,” Gallego said, Raw Story reported.
Fellow panelist Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor, agreed with Gallego that Jordan is a “traitor” and said Jordan’s text message to Meadows constitutes probable cause that Jordan committed “obstruction of official proceedings,” a federal felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Kirschner noted that when Jordan sent the text, Attorney General Bill Barr had already stated there was no widespread fraud in the presidential election, and Trump cybersecurity official Chris Krebs had called the 2020 vote “the most secure in American history.”
“What Jim Jordan did by forwarding that text was to obstruct an official proceeding, and that statute, which is a 20-year felony, says if you actually obstruct, or you attempt to obstruct, or you endeavor to impede an official congressional proceeding like the electoral vote count, you’ve committed the federal felony of obstructing an official proceeding,” Kirschner said. “That is what Jim Jordan did.”
Watch below from MSNBC:
