Jim Jordan gets specific, shows ways he’ll be better than Paul Ryan as speaker

In the latest episode of "The Steve Deace Show" podcast, CRTV host Steve Deace interviewed speaker of the House candidate Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio about how things would be different in the House of Representatives if he were leading the Republicans.

Deace asked Jordan why now is the time to launch an effort for speaker, and Jordan told him that Republicans in Congress haven't done what they said they would do.

"What have we done on the border security wall? What have we done on welfare reform?" Jordan asked rhetorically. "What have we done on repealing Obamacare? What have we done on controlling spending?"

"I feel like somebody's got to lead, and that's what I want to do if given the opportunity," Jordan said.

Listen:

Deace made a point to get Jordan on the record with specifics about how his leadership would differ from House Speaker Paul Ryan's.

"You're not running for philosopher, right? You're running for speaker. And so how do we do the stuff that you just said you'd like to do?" Deace asked.

Deace cited three examples of Ryan's leadership failing conservatives: the faux-Obamacare repeal effort, the irresponsible $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, and holding the FBI and DOJ accountable for stonewalling Congress. He asked what Jordan would have done differently.

In the first example, Jordan said the House of Representatives should have taken up the Obamacare repeal bill that passed Congress and was sent to President Obama's desk in 2015. "What I would've done is simply take the bill we passed the previous Congress," Jordan said. "Why not just start with something we've all already passed, put that on the president's desk on day one, and pass that and have the president sign it. And then you could work on the replacement element."

On the omnibus, Jordan said Republicans screwed up by failing to pressure the Democrats into cutting domestic spending without cutting military spending after Chuck Schumer humiliated himself by shutting down the government earlier that year. "Let's have the debate!" Jordan exclaimed. "After all, [with] the framework with Schumer and what he had done before with amnesty and the troops we were so poised to win, but instead we put a 2,232 page bill on the floor of the House."

Finally on holding the DOJ accountable to Congress, Jordan said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be held in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over subpoenaed documents and for allegedly threatening House intelligence committee staffers. And if holding Rosenstein in contempt of Congress fails to make the DOJ comply with congressional requests, Jordan said impeaching Rosenstein was the ultimate recourse.

Summarizing the conversation, Deace pointed to a "common thread" in Jordan's answers.

"The common thread seems to be, what is your priority? And maybe you don't want to say it but I'll ask the question anyway," Deace said. "What I hear you saying is that the priority of your current leadership is not keeping its promises to its own electorate, to its own base. That's just not the priority, otherwise if it [were] you would be doing the things you're talking about, right?"

"There is always a reason to postpone the promises you made to the American people when they gave us the privilege to go serve," Jordan answered. "That has got to change. We are way past the conventional way of doing things."

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px}
/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.
We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */