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Clay and Buck

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Rep. Jim Jordan Gives Us His Election Readout

9 Nov 2022

CLAY: We’re joined now by our friend, Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio. Congressman, I know it’s probably been crazy for you over the last few hours, but let’s start here.

REP. JORDAN: (chuckling)

CLAY: How confident are you that Republicans have taken back the House based on the map, the outstanding votes, the races that are still TBD out there?

REP. JORDAN: Yeah. No, I feel pretty good about it. And, you know this from your background in sports too, Clay. I learned a long time ago, “Winning beats losing and sometimes you got to win it overtime.” But I think that’s what’s going to happen. I think we’re going to win the House and it looks like Laxalt is going to win in Nevada. And then Herschel’s in a runoff with hope. And wins the runoff. So, you know, win in the House, win in the Senate is what we set out to do. And if that’s where we get that, that’s a huge win for the country.

BUCK: Congressman, it’s Buck. What were your biggest takeaways? I mean, it’s tough for us right now because we’re trying to assess what the outcome is without knowing the outcome. We obviously have a lot of data points and have a general sense of it, but it just feels like the blue is blue, the red is red, it’s razor thin, and it’s trench warfare out there. What do you take from it all? Because the Democrats —

REP. JORDAN: You —

BUCK: — you now, Biden’s just awful, at being president.

REP. JORDAN: No, he is awful. And remember, every Democrat ran away from him. A bunch of Democrats ran like they were Republicans. And, again, in politics — you guys know this — a lot of times it comes down to the candidate and it certainly comes down to a work ethic. That’s just the way life is. You have if you’re going to get to the goal again to achieve the dream, you’ve got to work hard. And I point to my buddy Scott Perry, who is in a tough seat in Pennsylvania, is going to win by ten points. They come out, they call him every name. They took his phone, for goodness sake, and he busted his tail.

I mean, he’s the kind of guy who’s going to high school football games in the fall on Friday nights, walking up and down the bleachers, shaking hands with people, handing out hot chocolate. He’s that kind of candidate. Sometimes you have to work that hard to win these tough races in the environment you describe, Buck, and so I think that’s one of the takeaways is hard work pays off, frankly, regardless of which party you’re on.

CLAY: Okay, so what do you think the timeframe is here when we’ll know what’s going to happen in the House and the Senate? A lot of people still apprehensive after 2020.

REP. JORDAN: Yep.

CLAY: I know you fought all those battles into the week. Do we know who won the house and who won the Senate? How do you kind of look at your tea leaves in terms of the timeline and what people out there should think in terms of knowing, unfortunately, how long it takes to know who won our election?

REP. JORDAN. Yeah.

CLAY: I wish every state was like Florida where 3 hours after they closed the polls we know it all.

REP. JORDAN: Yeah, and, by the way, look at Florida. That was a win for freedom. We had… Anna Paulina Luna had like 11 million bucks spent against her — a candidate that we endorsed in the House Freedom Fund — she wins. That is a win for people who are willing to stand up and, in a bold and articulate way, speak for the truth and speak for liberty. So that was, I think, one of the bright spots as well. I’m sure you guys have been talking about that. To answer your question, who in the heck knows?

I do remember — I’m old enough to remember — when, you know, when we had a paper ballots and we got all the results at, you know, midnight on Election Day. And now it takes us days and days and days with all this technology. So who the heck knows? I feel like — I feel like — it’s going to be some kind of decision for the House here in the next couple of days. But let’s hope it’s… (chuckling) Let’s hope it’s a little bit sooner. But I don’t know. If it’s frustrating for us, magine what it is like for the American people who don’t live this stuff every day like we do.

CLAY: No doubt.

BUCK: Congressman Jim Jordan with us now. Congressman, there I think is a is a fair criticism or maybe just, you know, the Monday morning quarterbacking here, I guess, in this case Wednesday. But it’s seeming to suggest that there wasn’t enough of a of a message from the GOP. Sure, Biden — and this is from the polling across the board — not doing a good job on the economy. Democrats are bad on crime, wide open border, etc. But somehow it didn’t translate into the Red Wave that we had hoped for. Did Republicans miss an opportunity to have a message of how we’re going to make things better? And do you think…? I mean, you’re a powerful voice inside of the GOP Congress. Do you think that that’s going to be something that gets increased focus going forward? Essentially, what is our agenda?

REP. JORDAN: Well, yeah, there’s going to be some reflection, but I think voters want someone who’s going to fight for what they said they were going to do, who’s going to stand up for them, and they know it. They know that candidate is genuine, that they genuinely care about their voters, and they’re going to go do what they said. I think that’s what they’re looking for. And that’s why you saw some good results from some Republicans around the country who I think embody that.

But if there’s some, like, wishy-washy, I think that can be a problem. So I think that’s the general sense that voters have. I do think there’ll be a reflection whenever you don’t — you know, after every contest, whether you won by a mile or you win in overtime. As I said, I think there’s always some reflection; I’m sure there’s going to be some on our part.

CLAY: Congressman Jim Jordan with us now. Trump has said — he was on with us yesterday. I don’t know if you heard him. I know you’re probably running around like crazy getting ready for the election. The plan was that he was going to announce at Mar-a-Lago on November 15th —

REP. JORDAN: Mmm-hmm.

CLAY: — which is six days from now, given that we may have a runoff coming in Georgia that decides who wins the Senate, I’d like to be optimistic about Nevada and also Arizona as those votes are still being counted.

REP. JORDAN: Yeah.

CLAY: Do you think Trump should announce or would you encourage him, “Hey, let’s wait and see what happens in Georgia, finish out the midterms, and then begin to work on 2024”?

REP. JORDAN: Yeah, that’s President Trump’s call. I was with the president on Monday night. He gave a just amazing speech in Ohio.

CLAY: Yeah, it was great in Ohio.

REP. JORDAN: It was just huge. It showed that contrast in real leadership like he has versus what we have in the White House right now. So, I leave that up to President Trump. You guys know where I’m at. I’ve supported President Trump. I think he did a great job, and, frankly, did more what he said as president than any president we’ve ever had. So that that’s up to him. What I’m focused on is let’s make sure we win the House — it looks like we’re going to — and then I assume it’s going to go to a runoff in Georgia. And I know two years ago I was (laughing) in Georgia trying to help our candidates. I assume we’ll be back in Georgia here in sometime over the next four weeks trying to help Herschel win that race.

CLAY: You and me both, Congressman.

REP: JORDAN: (laughing)

CLAY: I was there for the final rally of Herschel.

REP: JORDAN: Yeah. (laughing)

CLAY: I imagine we’re going to have him on the show quite a bit in that final month —

REP: JORDAN: Yeah.

CLAY: — because it may be deja vu all over again, right —

REP: JORDAN: Yeah.

CLAY: — where you have this decision in Georgia deciding who owns the Senate?

REP. JORDAN: Yeah, and, by the way, thanks for all you guys do giving the truth every day to the American people. It is so critical because they certainly don’t get it from the corporate media. And you guys laying it out there clearly, articulately, and frankly, in a fun way, so often that’s just so valuable. So, I appreciate that. Yeah, I think we’re all going to be in Georgia, hopefully here over the next four weeks helping Herschel win.

BUCK: Yeah, well, we appreciate that a lot, Congressman Jordan. I just wanted to ask you, for anybody out there right now… We’re getting a lot of people who feel now we don’t have the results. So, it’s tough. You know, how dejected can you be when you don’t know who won what yet?

REP: JORDAN: That’s right.

CLAY: But people are feeling like we, you know, we definitely underperformed expectations a little bit. What is your message to them? Because, you know, we’re happy warriors here. We stay in the fight no matter what.

REP. JORDAN: Yeah. Look, the goal is to win the House and win the Senate and stop the madness from the left. I think we have a real good chance of doing that. Let’s stay focused on that. And then also, like I said, look at where freedom won in such a strong way, like in the state of Florida and Texas. In Ohio, we won every statewide race. Republican incumbents are running for reelection in the Congress, we won by, like… I had my highest margin ever. And I now have the two most populous counties, the growing part, right, just northwest of Columbus. So, I think there are lots of good things to point out. We need to stay focused on that and realize sometimes you don’t win as big as we’d like, but winnin’ beats losin’ and it looks like we’re going to win.

CLAY: Congressman, Buck and I were just talking about this to start the hour. It feels like this midterm is actually going to make it more likely that Democrats stick with Joe Biden. I’m curious whether you would have that same read. Do you think Biden is likely to be the nominee for Democrats in 2024? And is maybe that actually a net positive because he’s one of the worst candidates and certainly the worst president we’ve ever seen?

REP: JORDAN: Yeah.

CLAY: I can’t imagine that in 2024 he’s going to be even as good as he is now and he ain’t good now.

REP. JORDAN: No, he is not. You know, I was asked by someone a couple weeks ago, “Is there anything positive you can point to from the Biden administration and Democrats?” And I literally tried to think of something and I said, “No, there isn’t.” And so, yeah, but he’s announced today that he’s running. He said that, the White House has put out that that he’s going to run. We’re getting reports that he’s running.

I mean, I don’t know if he’s specific enough, but the reports are he’s running. So, it sure looks like he’s going to and we’re going to help out to help frame this thing up over the next two years so that when President Trump runs or — if he decides not to, but I think he’s going to and that’s who I want. If he runs, he’s in a position where we’re going to win that and win the White House and get the right kind of attorney general in there and the right kind of people doing the things that the American people want.

BUCK: Congressman Jim Jordan from Ohio. Sir, we appreciate you.

REP. JORDAN: You bet.

BUCK: Thanks for joining us today.

REP. JORDAN: You bet. Thanks, guys.

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