Jim Jordan: William Barr, Wilbur Ross Contempt Vote 'Political Theatre'

House Oversight and Reform ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH) charged in a statement Wednesday that the Democrat-led contempt vote against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross amounts to “political theatre,” designed to interfere in the Supreme Court’s potential decision on the citizenship question on the 2020 census.

The House Oversight Committee voted Wednesday to hold Barr and Ross in contempt for their refusal to comply with subpoenas for documents relating to the Donald Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Congressman Jordan said that Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings’ (D-MD) contempt vote serves as another instance of “political theatre” designed to “interfere” with the Supreme Court’s potential decisionr egarding putting a citizenship question on the 2020 census.

Jordan said in a statement:

Chairman Cummings’s decision to proceed with holding the Attorney General and Secretary Ross in contempt represents a sad day in this Committee’s history. Today’s vote was an unwarranted action by the Chairman and a misuse of the Committee’s contempt authority. This vote was another act of political theater designed to interfere with the Supreme Court’s consideration of the reinstitution of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

Rep. Jordan has continually criticized Cumming’s leadership.

Ranking member Jordan demanded last week that Cummings hold former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen accountable for his “perjury-laden” testimony the House Oversight committee.

In April, a Hill-HarrisX poll found that 60 percent of Americans approve of a citizenship question on the 2020 census.

Congressman Jody Hice (R-GA) told Breitbart News Sunday in March that Democrats continue to fight the citizenship question because they fear that it might endanger their House majority by losing seats in Democrat-leaning states.

Hice explained:

From that, the apportionment districts are drawn and frankly, the Democrats are trying to protect the fact that there are who knows how many, 10, 15, 20 million people who are not citizens in the United States who are in states like California, where there are high numbers of people who are not citizens. That enables states like that have more representatives in Washington, and I would suspect at the end of the day that is the issue for them.

Jordan then asked rhetorically, “The Democrats’ desperation to affect the outcome of the case raises the question: why don’t Democrats want to know how many American citizens are in the United States of America?”