Dem
51
GOP
49
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has not had a lot of success with his new committee that is designed to somehow undermine the Select Committee on 1/6, and to somehow prove that Joe Biden and/or [FILL IN NAME OF DEMOCRAT HERE] are much more shady than Donald Trump ever was. This may have something to do with one small thing that the 1/6 Committee had that Jordan does not: compelling evidence.
In view of this, the Representative has decided to take the show on the road. Keep in mind that while Jordan's evergreen bugaboos are Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden's laptop, Hunter Biden's di** pics, etc., he is willing to be flexible and to shift focus to other bugaboos for short periods of time. And so, he is currently focused on Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. Bragg may not be evergreen, the way the Bidens are, but he IS ever Black, and hammering on him has gotta make some elements of the base happy. Anyhow, in order to suck up some oxygen and to get some headlines, Jordan is going to hold "field hearings" next week.
We have to be honest; we know a fair bit about civics and about how Congress works, but even we didn't know field hearings were a thing. It would seem that Jordan has arranged to borrow some space in the federal building that is around the corner from Bragg's offices in Manhattan. And the plan is to hear testimony from "victims" of Bragg's allegedly "radical pro-crime" policies.
What an unbelievable waste of time and federal money this is. Jordan is so clearly operating in bad faith, as he usually does, that it's simply not worth paying attention to whatever he comes up with. We are not, in general, believers that government officials have the power to dramatically increase/decrease crime, no matter how incompetent/competent they are. But even if Jordan comes up with something that, in other circumstances, might be compelling, you just have to assume it's a lie or a misrepresentation when it comes from him. He's long ago lost the benefit of the doubt.
Meanwhile, because the hearing is just going to be a propaganda-fest, the media isn't going to pay it much attention. Certainly, there won't be live coverage the way there was with the 1/6 hearings. Sure, the Foxes and Newsmaxes of the world will give it some coverage, but the people who take their cues from those sites already believe Bragg is Satan's representative on Earth. Meanwhile, this helps the rest of us to see that Jordan has been on the job for not much more than 2 months, and he's already getting desperate. This does not bode well for his chances of coming up with some actual Democratic dirty laundry that he can get mileage out of airing. (Z)