Jim Jordan, Amid Pandemic: Cancel Culture 'Most Dangerous Thing' Happening Today

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Josephine Harvey
·Reporter, HuffPost
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As thousands of Americans continue to die from the raging COVID-19 pandemic, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) called cancel culture the “most dangerous thing happening in the country today.”

In a Wednesday appearance on Fox News, the Republican lawmaker railed against the Democrats’ effort to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) of her House committee assignments in response to her social media posts endorsing off-the-rails conspiracy theories and talk of murdering Democratic politicians.

Jordan said that “no one’s condoning the remarks that she’s made” but slammed any effort to hold her accountable. That would constitute “cancel culture,” he argued.

“Once this starts, tell me where it ends,” he said. “Where does it ― who’s next? Think of the cancel culture.”

“This will never end. And if we don’t stop it now, every single American is at risk, and that’s what concerns me,” Jordan added.

The Republican House leadership has criticized Greene’s rhetoric but stopped short of removing her from the committees she sits on.

Jordan, one of former President Donald Trump’s most defiant allies, then turned to another recurring Republican talking point: accusing President Joe Biden of being hypocritical when he asks Americans to unite while he also seeks consequences for his predecessor’s part in inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead.

“It’s tough to unify when you’re impeaching a president who’s already left office. It’s tough to unify when you’re trying to cancel 75 million people who voted for that guy,” Jordan said.

In their legal brief arguing for Trump’s conviction in the upcoming Senate trial, House Democrats contend that his conduct endangered the lives of every member of Congress, jeopardized the peaceful transition of power and compromised national security, which they wrote adds up to the exact “sort of constitutional offense that warrants disqualification from federal office.” (If Trump is found guilty, the Senate can, under the Constitution, bar him from holding future federal office.)

Though he posed as an adversary of canceling people for their opinions on Fox News, Jordan also called for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to be ousted from Republican House leadership for her vote to impeach Trump last month. He argued Wednesday that there should be a vote of no confidence against her.

Jordan was panned on social media for conflating consequences with cancel culture and for failing to acknowledge the most dangerous thing actually happening in the country right now ― the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 450,000 people in the U.S.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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