Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) defended Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) attempt to overturn the 2020 election, pointing to other Republicans who attempted to do the same.
CNN’s Jake Tapper pointed out that Jordan was one of the many Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election results, but Crenshaw said that wouldn’t stop him from supporting him. The Texas Republican was not one of the 139 House Republicans at the time who objected to the certification of the election results.
“But a lot of them did that. If I held that grudge, I wouldn’t have friends in the Republican Conference, because a lot of them did that,” Crenshaw said on “State of the Union.”
Tapper conceded that Crenshaw made “an excellent point,” laughing as he suggested he would have issues with two-thirds of the conference over their opposition to certifying the election results. Crenshaw said that he “was on an island there” when discussing who voted to certify the results.
Crenshaw also reiterated his support for Jordan, saying that “there’s a reason” he backs him for Speaker.
“And what I would remind a lot of the members who are against Jordan, because — because his reputation precedes him, but his reputation has changed over time. He has become part of the solution, not part of the problem. He has long since been part of the solution,” he said.
Some critics have voiced opposition to Jordan’s potential Speakership after he clinched the nomination by the GOP conference last week. Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said she was concerned with Jordan’s close ties with former President Trump and his involvement in the efforts to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.
“Jim Jordan was involved in Trump’s conspiracy to steal the election and seize power,” she wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “He urged that [former Vice President Mike Pence] refuse to count lawful electoral votes.”