CNN’s Jake Tapper fact-checked Rep. Jim Jordan in real time during an interview Sunday on “State of the Union” as the Ohio Republican defended President Trump amid an impeachment inquiry sparked in part by Trump’s dealings with his Ukrainian counterpart.
Tapper pushed back on several fronts, including when Jordan repeated Trump’s unfounded allegations about former Vice President Joe Biden’s alleged wrongdoing in dealing with Ukraine while Biden’s son Hunter Biden sat on a Ukrainian company’s board.{mosads}
“He’s getting paid $50,000. And then when the company that’s paying him that money is under investigation, guess what. Daddy comes running to the rescue, the vice president of United States come running,” Jordan said.
“That’s not what happened,” Tapper responded, speaking over Jordan.
“Says fire — fire that prosecutor,” Jordan continued.
“Sir, sir, that’s not what happened. The European Union, the Obama administration, the International Monetary Fund, pro-clean government activists in Ukraine thought that the prosecutor was not prosecuting corruption,” Tapper responded.
“Did Joe Biden tell him to fire the prosecutor?” Jordan asked.
“Because he wasn’t going after corruption,” Tapper responded. “He wasn’t going after corruption. Do you understand what I’m saying? He wasn’t going after corruption?”
Jordan also called the whistleblower who filed a complaint centered on a call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens a “bureaucrat who didn’t like the president.”
“We know he didn’t like the president,” Jordan, who sits on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, added.
“No, we don’t know,” Tapper replied.
The CNN host also pushed back on Jordan’s claims regarding the whistleblower and his qualifications for determining the person’s credibility.
“He had no firsthand knowledge. He heard something from someone who may have heard something from someone,” Jordan said.
“No, no, his — his sources were firsthand sources,” Tapper said.
“You know as well as I do that you do not need to have firsthand knowledge to be a whistleblower,” Tapper added.
“Well, you don’t now because they changed the form. You used to,” Jordan said
Tapper then stated that had never been true.