Maxine Waters Puts Jim Jordan In His Place Amid Absurd COVID Hearing

Maxine Waters Puts Jim Jordan In His Place Amid Absurd COVID Hearing

There's grilling a witness, and then there's whatever you want to call the histrionic performance Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) treated a House subcommittee to Thursday.

Jordan was so contemptuous that, after he exceeded his time limit (yet nevertheless kept talking), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) intervened.

“Your time expired, sir,” she told Jordan, curtly. “You need to respect the chair and shut your mouth.”

The hearing was convened to discuss “a science-driven approach” to “swiftly and safely” ending the pandemic. In the minutes leading up to the above exchange, Jordan repeatedly accosted Dr. Anthony Fauci, demanding answers to misleading questions, then loudly speaking over the nation's top infectious disease expert as he attempted to answer them. 

Jordan really only asked one question, though it was buried in theatrics and went through several iterations. After each, he cut off Fauci as he attempted to respond. Here's a small sample that's representative of the whole:

Jordan: “When is the time? When do Americans get their freedom back?”

Fauci: “When we get the level of infections in this country low enough that it is not a really high ― ”

Jordan: “What is low enough? Give me a number. We had 15 days to slow the spread turn into one year of lost liberty.