Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan has changed his account of the January 6 Capitol riot, now saying he spoke with former President Trump ‘more than once’ during the attack.
‘Look, I definitely spoke to the president that day. I don’t recall – I know it was more than once, I just don’t recall the times,’ the conservative lawmaker told Politico.
The revelation comes a week after the Democrat-led January 6 committee announced it would be looking into phone records and text messages from potential witnesses including Republican members of Congress.
At least one of the calls occurred in the safe room where he and others were held while violent Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
He said he was ‘sure’ of the fact because they were ‘in that room forever.’
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, also a staunch Trump ally, joined Jordan on the safe room call, another source told the outlet.
They reportedly pled with the ex-president to tell the rioters to stop, but it’s unclear how he responded.
Jordan wouldn’t admit whether or not Gaetz was on the call and didn’t go into specifics on what he and Trump discussed, but added that he wanted the National Guard to step in.
Gaetz also didn’t get into specifics when asked.
‘Congressman Gaetz speaks with President Trump regularly and doesn’t disclose the substance of those discussions with the media,’ his spokesperson told Politico.
Jordan revealed last month that he spoke with Trump the day of the MAGA riot – but only mentioned one conversation.
‘I spoke with him on January 6. I mean I talk with President Trump all the time,’ he told Spectrum News in July. ‘I don’t think that’s unusual.’
When pressed the lawmaker said he spoke with Trump after the riot, then quickly backpedaled and said he didn’t know exactly ‘when those conversations happened’ or if he spoke with him ‘in the morning or not.’
Jordan is changing his tune just a week after Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bipartisan January 6 commission announced its intention to seek the phone records of GOP legislators and Trump associates as part of its ongoing probe.
Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson said he’ll seek the phone records of several hundred people, including Republican members of Congress, as part of the probe.
The Mississippi Democrat declined to identify which lawmakers would be sought but told reporters on Capitol Hill his committee is reaching out to tech and communications companies as well as social media platforms for hundreds of records from that day.
‘We have quite an exhaustive list of people. I won’t tell you who they are, but it’s several hundred people that make up the list of people we are planning to contact,’ he said when asked if the list included Trump’s family members.
Jordan is one of several Republican lawmakers claiming to have spoken with Trump on January 6.
Another is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who reportedly asked Trump ‘Who the f— do you think you’re talking to?’ in a tense call after begging him to call his supporters off.
Since Sunday’s disclosure of Jordan’s January 6 timeline surfaced, multiple people have called for Jordan to face consequences.
‘Jim Jordan must testify before the 1/6 committee,’ Jeff Sites, a Democratic challenger for Jordan’s House seat, wrote on Twitter.
Sites also claimed Jordan knows ‘exactly what Trump said to him’ that day and is ‘lying because it incriminates Trump.’
Actor George Takei wrote on the site, ‘One takeaway from Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz calling and begging Trump to tell the rioters to stand down on Jan 6 is that they apparently believed Trump had full control over Antifa.’
He was referring to a right-wing conspiracy theory that far-left group Antifa staged the riot.