Ohio Republican Representative Jim Jordan was criticized after he appeared visibly uncomfortable after 60 Minutes reporter Leslie Stahl pressed him to agree that most people do not believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Stahl asked Jordan if he believed social media companies should allow people to claim that the election was stolen, to which Jordan responded by stating there were "concerns" about the election without directly addressing the question.
Stahl issued a firm "No, they don't" before Jordan continued to parrot the lie with the following question:
“You don’t think they think there were concerns with the 2020 election?”
To that, Stahl replied:
“Most people don’t question the result, that’s all I’m saying."
After Jordan replied with a curt "Fair enough," Stahl once again noted that the majority of American voters "don’t question whether [President Joe] Biden won or not." Things grew ever more awkward when Jordan didn't respond after Stahl asked him, "Right?" two separate times.
Jordan finally answered, "Right," when Stahl stressed once again that “Most people don’t question the outcome."
You can watch their interaction in the video below
Jordan was swiftly criticized following his awkward appearance.
Jordan, a prominent ally of former President Donald Trump, was interviewed in the context of an upcoming Supreme Court decision regarding the government's authority to regulate social media content.
The case involves allegations that the Biden administration infringed on users' First Amendment rights by pressuring platforms to remove certain posts, particularly those related to COVID-19 misinformation.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether such government intervention constitutes an overreach or is justified in cases where the content poses a significant threat.
Over the last few years, Jordan has made headlines for promoting misformation regarding COVID-19 by undermining vaccine efforts and pushing back against attempts to curb the virus' spread including the wearing of masks.
Jordan was also among 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives who signed an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a case that contested the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. However, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, citing Texas's lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge another state's election results.
Notably, Jordan was one of the 147 representatives who voted to overturn the results of the election in Congress on January 7, 2021, the day following the attack on the United States Capitol by Trump supporters operating on the false premise the election had been stolen.
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