After reluctantly admitting last month that he spoke to former President Trump on Jan. 6, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) reportedly had more than one conversation with Trump on the day of the Capitol insurrection.
During an interview on Fox News last month, Jordan first deflected when asked if he spoke to Trump on Jan. 6 until host Brett Baier forced an answer out of the Ohio congressman who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
“I mean — I’ve talked to the president so many — I can’t remember all the days I’ve talked to him, but I’ve certainly talked to the President,” Jordan told Baier last month.
Jordan then dodged a follow-up question on the content of his conversation with Trump on Jan. 6.
On Sunday, Politico Playbook reported new details of the conversation between Jordan and Trump, which included confirmation of at least one additional phone call as the deadly Capitol insurrection unfolded.
After a group of lawmakers evacuated the House chamber and took shelter in a safe room on Jan. 6, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) reportedly joined Jordan on a call with Trump to urge the then-President to tell his supporters to stand down. A source with knowledge of the call declined to disclose how Trump reacted to Jordan and Gaetz’s demand when asked by Politico.
Jordan told Politico that he’d “have to think about it” when asked to confirm the call he shared with Gaetz, citing many conversations he had on Jan. 6. Jordan reportedly said phone calls to Trump occurred more than once on the day that the then-President’s supporters breached the Capitol amid his refusal to concede the election.
“Look, I definitely spoke to the President that day. I don’t recall — I know it was more than once, I just don’t recall the times,” Jordan told Politico Playbook.
Jordan added that “I’m sure” one of his calls with Trump was held in the safe room “because we were in that room forever,” referring to the room that lawmakers were evacuated to.
Jordan once again declined getting into details about what he discussed with Trump, but said that he wanted the National Guard to step in.
A spokesperson for Gaetz told Politico that the Trump loyalist speaks with the former president “regularly and doesn’t disclose the substance of those discussions with the media.”
Politico’s latest report of Jordan’s discussions with Trump comes after the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack sent a vast document request demanding that eight federal agencies provide information relating to Trump’s involvement in the Capitol insurrection.
The select committee requested documents that include Trump White House records held by the National Archives and Records Administration, in addition to documents from the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and Interior. The committee also directed its requests towards the intelligence and national security communities, asking for information from the FBI, Director of National Intelligence, and National Counterterrorism Center.
On Friday, the committee also demanded records about the planning and execution of the attack from a range of tech companies that include Facebook, Twitter, Google, walkie-talkie app Zello, right-wing social networks Gab and Parler, and troll forums 4Chan and 8Kun.
The committee gave the federal agencies and tech companies until Sept. 9 to respond to the requests.
Earlier this month, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) — who serves on the Democratic-led Jan. 6 committee alongside Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) — told ABC News that he would be in favor of sending subpoenas to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Jordan. Kinzinger’s remarks were made after Jordan acknowledged that he spoke with Trump on Jan. 6.
“I would support subpoenas to anybody that can shed light on that. If that’s the leader, that’s the leader,” Kinzinger told ABC News. “If it’s anybody that talked to the President that can provide us that information, I want to know what the President was doing every moment of that day.”
