Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and NBC News political director Chuck Todd sparred over whether the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into high-profile officials’ handling of classified documents is evidence of political weaponization.
During a segment on NBC’s “Meet The Press” Sunday, Jordan and moderator Todd debated the differences between the investigations into President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents.
The discussion was originally about House Republicans’ probe into the alleged weaponization of the DOJ.
Todd argued, “The problem when you look at it is you want to talk about the weaponization of the Justice Department. You don’t want to look at anything that happened during the Trump years.”
His comments led Jordan to recount several examples he believes could be the result of the weaponization of the DOJ. One example was the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August.
However, Todd interjected, “You keep talking about this raid on Donald Trump. The amount of time — there was nine months between the initial action that the archives made for requests of documents before they even turned it over to the Justice Department.”
“The subpoena was issued 60 days before they actually executed the subpoena. And more importantly, the only time the public found out about it is because Donald Trump told the public about it,” he continued.
Todd referenced the months-long effort to retrieve classified documents from Trump’s property that preceded the search of Mar-a-Lago.
The moderator went on:
“You paint it as a picture of the FBI did this, this, and this within hours of each other, when it was actually a year and a half of Donald Trump not complying with any of the requests from National Archives. A year and a half. This is not some sort of proof that somehow that they’ve [been] weaponized and [are] playing politics over here.”
Watch the video below:
EXCLUSIVE: Trump did not comply with National Archives requests for 18 months before the FBI searched his home for classified docs.
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 29, 2023
Rep. @Jim_Jordan (R-Ohio): "They raided Trump's home; they haven't raided Biden's home."@ChuckTodd: "Because Biden didn't defy a subpoena." pic.twitter.com/YCVetCl7x3
Jordan shot back, “They raided Trump’s home; they haven’t raided Biden’s home.”
However, Todd noted, “Because Biden didn’t defy a subpoena, congressman! [Trump] defied a subpoena. By the way, he had 60 days to comply with the subpoena before they actually executed the search warrant.”
“President Trump had documents locked in a room with Secret Service protecting them. President Biden had documents in his garage and in a think tank that was funded by the Chinese. I think there’s a difference,” Jordan countered.
Finally, Todd replied, “You do not seem to ever see the same conspiratorial problems when it’s a Republican.”
The exchange comes as Trump and Biden are both facing special counsel investigations into their handling of classified documents.