Trump to award presidential medal of freedom to loyal Republican Jim Jordan
Donald Trump was set on Monday to award the highest US civilian honour to a close ally who has supported his attempts to remain in power, objecting to electoral college results even after the president incited the deadly Capitol riot: the Ohio Republican representative Jim Jordan.
According to the White House, the presidential medal of freedom is awarded to “individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of America, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”.
Trump gave the medal to the rightwing talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and, last week, the California congressman Devin Nunes and three golfers. The New England Patriots coach, Bill Belichick, is also reportedly due to receive the medal this week.
Trump will leave office on 20 January but five days after the Capitol riot he provoked and which left five dead, Democrats are demanding his removal via the 25th amendment or an unprecedented second impeachment.
Jordan remains loyal, having been described as Trump’s “attack dog” during the Russia investigation, the first impeachment and other controversies. On Saturday, one member of the editorial board of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, in his home state, called Jordan “an accomplice to the worst president in the history of our country”.
In the hours after last Wednesday’s riot, Jordan was one of 147 Republican representatives and senators who went through with objections to electoral college results, in support of Trump’s baseless claims of mass electoral fraud. Clear majorities in both houses voted them down and Joe Biden will be inaugurated on 20 January.
Jordan condemned the riot and expressed support for Capitol police, after the death of an officer who was struck with a fire extinguisher. One rioter was shot by law enforcement and three people died after medical emergencies.
Nonetheless, the congressman went through with his objection. Senators who did so, most prominently Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, are the subject of calls for censure or expulsion.
Jordan is under fire in his own state. On Sunday, the editorial board of the Dayton Daily News said he and other Ohio Republicans were “on the hook” for the Capitol putsch.
The congressmen “willfully created an alternative reality by spreading lies and conspiracy theories”, the board wrote.
Victor Ruiz, of the Plain Dealer, said Jordan had proved himself an accomplice “to the violent insurrection that occurred this past week. He has done
a disservice to our country and his name should not be mentioned with the likes of Thurgood Marshall, Cesar Chavez and Maya Angelou.”
Other members of the Plain Dealer editorial board opposed an honour for
Jordan, among them the opinion director, Elizabeth Sullivan, who said the congressman “used his oratorical skills to subvert the truth and serve a dangerously ego-driven man who fell into delusion and denial when he couldn’t win a second term, unleashing violence aimed at the heart of our democracy”.
But he also found support, with the columnist Ted Diadiun calling him “a stand-up guy and a patriot who says what he thinks and lives by his word”.
Thomas Suddes, an editorial writer, said “the elegant medal and its blue ribbon will look good on Jordan, a trim 56, who still has the air of the champion college wrestler he once was”.
Jordan has, however, been dogged by claims that when he was a wrestling coach, at Ohio State, he ignored allegations of sexual abuse by a team doctor. He denies the accusations.
In tune with other Republican leaders, Jordan opposes a second impeachment and is critical of moves against rightwing social media, over the incitement of violence, including the suspension of Trump’s Twitter account.
“Canceling conservative speech will not promote ‘unity and healing’,” Jordan wrote on Twitter on Friday.