Congressman Jim Jordan said here Wednesday that the biggest threat the Biden administration poses to American democracy is its attacks on the First Amendment.
“I’m nervous about this whole censorship effort to keep us from posting and saying things online,” the Ohio Republican told about 170 people at a 2 p.m. town hall meeting called by Congressman August Pfluger at the Marriott Hotel & Conference Center downtown. “We went from $2 gas to $4 gas and from a secure border to no border, but what we can’t recover from is if they destroy our freedom of faith, the freedom to assemble like we are now, the right to petition our government and our rights to free press and free speech.
“They have attacked every single one of those, but the most important one is our right to talk. The alternative is truly scary.”
Then Pfluger quipped to laughter and applause, “Jim, I can assure you that this group is not afraid to petition their government.”
Pfluger is a San Angelo Republican who represents Ector County in the 11th Congressional District.
The meeting opened with a prayer by State Sen. Kevin Sparks of Midland, who represents Ector County in Austin, and the Pledges of Allegiance to the United States and Texas being led by Sheriff Mike Griffis.
Jordan, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus in Washington, D.C., reviewed events dating to President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, saying the Democrats’ claim that Trump had colluded with Russia was proved unfounded.
“We thought it was baloney and it was,” he said. “The only thing we had wrong was that it was worse than we had thought.”
Jordan said the 2 1/2-year Mueller investigation of Trump “found nothing” and an FBI raid of his home was the weaponization of a federal agency like the Permian Basin is seeing now with the Environmental Protection Agency.
Mentioning the pending indictments of the former president in Washington and Miami, he said, “My concern is, what are they going to try next?”
Jordan said he called Trump after the FBI raid and Trump surprised him by exclaiming, “Jim, this is the best thing ever!”
“That is an amazing attitude, an American attitude,” he said. “He hates to lose and that’s an American attitude. Trump has that attitude and people see it.”
Pfluger said Washington needs a return to free co-equal branches of government with the legislative, executive and judicial branches playing their constitutional roles and balancing power.
‘I don’t have to tell anyone in this room about governmental over-reach,” he said. “The Endangered Species Act is being weaponized against private lands and against the production of energy security.
“The list goes on and on.”
