Swalwell defends Jordan attack during House hearing: ‘We don’t punch back hard enough’

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said Democrats don’t “punch back hard enough” against Republicans “lies” about President Joe Biden after calling out House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) for evading a subpoena to testify before the House Jan. 6 committee.

“Republicans will continue to tell lies about President Biden,” Swalwell said on MSNBC’s ‘Inside with Jen Psaki’ on Sunday. “And that’s in part why I think his approval rating is as low as it is, is that they tell these lies. We don’t punch back hard enough. We play on our side of the field rather than theirs.”

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During a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) accused Attorney General Merrick Garland of potentially being in contempt of Congress for refusing to comment on the ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden.

Swalwell denounced Massie’s remarks, pointing out that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) failed to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol. As Swalwell was speaking to the committee, he displayed a clock counting 496 days since Jordan refused to comply with his subpoena.

Swalwell outlined his three-point plan to tackle Republican claims that he believes are false, saying Democrats should take a “3D approach” in every hearing.

“First, immediately discredit them,” Swalwell said. “And Jordan, it’s easy to discredit him because he won’t even honor his own subpoena.”

Swalwell said the second approach is to “debunk any of the claims that they’re making that are false” but urged members to not “chase every single one” but purpose the “substantive ones” that would “pervert the truth.”

“And then always pivot to what we have delivered and what we will deliver, you know, in a new majority in the house under President Biden in a majority in the Senate,” Swalwell concluded.

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Biden has seen record-low disapproval numbers amid his presidential reelection campaign, reaching 56% disapproval among voters, according to a new national NBC News poll. Swalwell accredits the president’s low ranking in part to the “right-wing media ecosystem,” which reinforces the negative narrative spread by Republicans.

“Discredit, debunk, and always deliver, and I think that plays on their side of the field rather than being on our heels on our own,” Swalwell said on how his party can fight back.