CLAY: We’re joined now by Congressman Jim Jordan, the new head of the Judiciary Committee, and also the man who is going to be heading up a deep dive into collusion, Big Tech, Big Media, Big Government, all of that. And, Congressman, first of all, congratulations. I know it’s been a crazy time for you. What are you most looking forward to, now that you will have a gavel in your committee and in multiple committees, really? I guess that’s a subcommittee that you’ll be heading up as well. What are you most looking forward to?
REP. JORDAN: The whistleblowers. We’ve had dozens of whistleblowers come forward. I think many of them are going to be willing to be deposed, willing to testify and letting them — people in the FBI, good people who have served our country, who now have come and talked to us and told us how bad it’s gotten, letting them — come and tell their story to the American people. I think that is really important and then I think pointing out that’s sort of the template that has been used by this administration to go after people with a different political persuasion.
You had the school boards’ issue where there was a letter from the left-wing group that was the predicate for the now famous memo that said use the Patriot Act against parents who were showing up at school board meetings advocating for their son or daughter. And what happened there is whistleblower told us over two dozen parents actually had an FBI agent show up at their home simply because they went to talk at their school board meeting.
And then look at the same template, the template that was used when you had 51 former intel officials write the letter that became the predicate for Big Tech and Big Government to collude to keep the information from the American people in the run up to the election. I think there’s a pattern and we want to show that clearly and get to the bottom and get every bit of fact, every bit of truth out there for the American people.
BUCK: Congressman Jordan, appreciate you being with us, as always. The accountability piece of this, I mean, obviously, getting the truth out there is step one and I know that’s going to be a major focus of what your committee will be doing. But what could be done about it? I mean, I know there are limitations now because of control of the Senate and the White House. But I do think that laying out for people how things like the FBI could be reformed to avoid this kind of political weaponization is critical. What does that look like? I mean, how do we fix some of these things after we’ve identified the problem?
REP. JORDAN: Well, we’re going to get the facts out there. But yeah, we hope that through the course of this investigation, there’ll be legislative remedies, legislative changes that make sense that will help to better protect America’s First Amendment liberties, better protect them from a government that we think is going after people who have a different political mindset. One of the things I think makes sense is if the FBI is going to interview someone, it doesn’t just write it down. Maybe they should have an audiotape of that. Maybe if they had an audiotape of the interview they conducted of Michael Flynn none of that would have ever happened.
So, maybe that’s just one comment. We’ve offered that as an amendment before. Of course, the Democrats were against it in a markup in our committee. I think another thing, it just sort of stepped, you know, it kind of makes sense to me or something I notice, at least, is why are so many people who leave government, why do they still keep their clearance? The 51 former intel officials who signed that letter, do they still have a clearance? My guess is many of them do. Is that a good thing, a bad thing? I think that at least warrants a discussion and maybe that’s something we will look at going forward and then other things that we may learn in the process that need to be changed legislatively.
We will certainly look to do that and hope that Democrats will join us. After all, Democrats actually used to care about the First Amendment protecting people’s basic liberties. But I don’t know if that’s the case now, based particularly on what Jerry Nadler said on the debate on this resolution earlier this week. Even before we passed the resolution, he said this is political, we’re going to fight this tooth and nail. And that was sad for us to hear because, like I said, I remember a Democrat Party that actually used to care about respecting free speech rights and freedom of the press and freedom to petition and assemble and all the other things we enjoy in this great country.
CLAY: Jim, I’m sure you’ve seen the revelations associated with Adam Schiff and the demands that he made about censorship. Tell me if you agree with this idea. I have struggled with all these demands for censorship that we have seen coming out from Twitter. And we know we’re only seeing a tiny portion of them because it’s going on at Facebook, it’s going on at Instagram, it’s going on at YouTube, Google, everywhere else. What do you think about this idea? And I’m curious whether there will be any bipartisan support at all. But, certainly, I think Republicans should be able to pass it.
If you request that there be a censorship from a Big Tech company, there should have to be a clearinghouse for all of those requests. And they are then published so that people can go through and look and see, “Oh, Adam Schiff was trying to get a parody account taken down because he didn’t like the fact that it was making fun of him.” You know, I understand some requests are important if somebody pretending to be you or another member of Congress or another member of government and they’re, you know, attempting like fake accounts to be you, that’s important, right? But this idea that you’re getting somebody blocked because of the content that they’re producing, I think we should all be able to see it. And I think it would embarrass many of these people and shine light on it. Any possibility of a clearinghouse like that that you could see making sense?
REP. JORDAN: Yeah, transparency totally makes sense. And, remember, that’s not what Schiff did. Schiff tried to get a journalist, what they posted, taken down.
CLAY: Now, there’s multiple… there’s new ones up today, Jim, where he was trying to get like accounts that were making fun of things he didn’t like, taken down as well. You’re right. They’re more severe, more severe with the journalists. But all of those requests, to me, should 100% be public.
REP. JORDAN: Yeah. Particularly when it’s coming from, you know, a high-ranking government official trying to leverage a private company to censor speech of a fellow American citizen. So, yeah, I think that part of our plan to deal with this with regarding two or three other things is a transparency component that we think makes sense. And we’ll be working with the Energy and Commerce Committee on legislation that we’ll bring forward in the House to address the concerns of Big Tech censoring conservative views and the issue you just talked about, being the parody accounts.
CLAY: Yep. What does —
REP. JORDAN: By the way, by the way, I got to tell you, because I landed at 5 yesterday in Columbus. We’re driving home and I was listening to you guys, your podcast, and I have no idea what Dinosaur Oatmeal was about, but Buck is 100% right. My wife, we have chickens. She built this this chicken coop and he’s 100% right about eggs. The chickens we have are corn-fed, free range, all the good stuff. But I thought, I’m driving home and I’m like, “Clay and Buck talking about Dinosaur Oatmeal and how you cook eggs.” But, so, you’re informative.
CLAY: You never know what you’re going to hear. I got to say, this morning I was out of Dinosaur Oatmeal, and I’m afraid that I’ve got it sold out all over the country now because I couldn’t make it for my 8-year-old and it was not a happy morning.
BUCK: My family, Clay, was texting me. They’re like, “That sounds delicious.” Like, my mom and my dad, “That sounds delicious. I’m going to get some Dinosaur Oatmeal.” So, sponsorship maybe? I think we need to have a conversation about that.
REP. JORDAN: I love oatmeal, but I have no idea what Dinosaur Oatmeal is. But I do know what good eggs are. And Buck, my wife, she is so into this. We got, I don’t know, these different-colored eggs, different colored chickens and corn-fed. She’s got all the stuff that makes sure they’re warm in the winter. I call the chicken coop the Taj Mahal, where the chickens stay.
BUCK: You want chickens to be happy, you know, you want chickens to be strutting their stuff and feeling good and sunshine on their faces and then laying those eggs.
REP. JORDAN: You learn everything on this great show, I guess.
BUCK: Congressman Jordan, we always appreciate you, sir. Thank you for being with us. We’ll talk to you soon.
REP. JORDAN: Take care, guys.
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