MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace had no time for diplomacy as she assessed Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) record in Congress.
Wallace tore into the House speaker nominee during an interview with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who served on the Jan. 6 committee.
Lofgren said Jordan had not been a good chairman of the House Judiciary Committee or a good member of Congress and was “up to his eyeballs in the plot to overturn the Constitution.”
Lofgren added, “You know, he’s not someone who supports our democratic institutions, and the idea that he would be second in line to the presidency is pretty astonishing.”
But according to Wallace, that’s an understatement.
“I feel like you’re being diplomatic. He’s a terrible member of Congress ... He’s a terrible lawmaker. He’s never made a law,” Wallace said.
“And he’s a terrible chair of this subcommittee on weaponization,” she said, noting that Jordan had produced “no actual evidence” in the panel he leads investigating what he claims is the “weaponization” of the federal government against Donald Trump and others on the right.
“You’ve got other Republicans saying that the things he tried to do when he was elevated by McCarthy were a bust,” she added. (Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appointed Jordan to the committee position in January.)
Jordan, an election denier active in Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election, fell 20 votes short of the number he needed to become House speaker on Tuesday.
After the vote, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who did not vote for him, criticized Jordan’s efforts to support the four-times-indicted Trump, saying he needs to “stop talking about defunding the Department of Justice.”
Lofgren told Wallace, “You’re right.”
“I thought that Ken Buck was being actually diplomatic discussing his failures,” she said. “But you know, the concern is that not only is he bad at his job, but that he doesn’t really support our institutions of the government.”
Another vote is expected on Wednesday morning.
Watch Wallace and Lofgren’s commentary below on MSNBC.