President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he will award the presidential medal of freedom to the rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio, a grumpy Republican ally in Congress who continues to support the president, even after the deadly hooliganism last week by a pro-Trump mob through the Capitol.
Jordan has received the country’s highest civilian award from a crippled duck and increasingly isolated president who has only nine days in office and who faces humiliation of a possible second indictment before incumbent President Joe Biden takes office occupy.
Jordan, a sharp-elbow defender, led the GOP attack on Special Advocate Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and his harsh interrogation of witnesses – plus his refusal to wear a jacket while doing so. made him a national figure and a lightning conductor for critics.
With the announcement of the award, the White House praised Jordan for, among other things, his work to ‘unmask the Russian farce and tackle deep-seated corruption’ and for his efforts to ‘confront the accused witch hunt’.
Trump was first accused by the Democratic-controlled House in 2019 of putting the Ukrainian president under pressure to inflict political damage on Biden. He was acquitted by the GOP-led Senate.
In the wake of the Capitol invasion last week, Jordan joined the two-party chorus condemning the violence.
But hours after the building was looted, Jordan was also one of the 147 Republican representatives and senators who took part in the latest attempt to derail Biden’s legitimate victory by objecting to the results of the election college and Trump’s unfounded allegations of to repeat a rude person. election.
Jordan, a founding member of the arch-conservative Freedom Caucus, who sometimes nominated members of his own party, is not the first political ally of Trump to receive the presidential award.
Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican who also strongly defended Trump, won a medal last week. And before that, right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh was a receiver.
A day after the attack on the Capitol, Trump gave the medal to three pro golfers – Annika Sorenstam, Gary Player and posthumously, Babe Didrikson Zaharias. And later this week, Trump is expected to give the medal to New England Patriots longtime coach Bill Belichick.
In Ohio, the editors of The Dayton Daily News turned a blind eye to Jordan, who received the award, calling him one of the instigators of the deadly mob violence in Washington.
Jordan was one of several GOP congressmen who “deliberately created an alternative reality by spreading lies and conspiracy theories,” the council wrote.
“Jim Jordan is an accomplice to the worst president in our country’s history and to the violent uprising that took place this past week,” Cleveland Plain Dealer editor-in-chief Victor Ruiz said recently at a roundtable discussion. “He has rendered a bad service to our country and his name should not be mentioned like Thurgood Marshall, Cesar Chavez and Maya Angelou.”
“I can hardly think of anyone who deserves the Medal of Freedom who deserves less than Jim Jordan, one of the rebellious lawmakers who blocked a peaceful transition of power,” co-council member Lisa Garvin added.
But Plain Dealer conservative columnist Ted Diadiun calls Jordan an “emerging man and a patriot who, in his words, says what he thinks and lives.”
“Any award that someone likes to give him is deserving and that’s fine with me,” Diadiun said. He also appealed for Trump’s accusations of inciting riots.
The awarding of the medal to Jordan has also been heavily criticized by some former Ohio State University wrestlers who accused him of doing nothing to protect them from a team doctor who sexually abused them when Jordan was assistant coach from 1986 to 1994. was not.
‘If you have hundreds of athletes who have been sexually abused on your watch and who are enabling a sitting president to incite a domestic terrorist uprising, cornered are the qualities of a candidate to receive the highest civilian award in the country “Then Jim Jordan needs two medals of freedom,” former OSU wrestler Mike DiSabato told NBC News.
Jordan, a former champion wrestler, has steadfastly denied any knowledge of what team doctor Richard Strauss did to the wrestlers, including hearing from a locker room.
