Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) tried to draw a connection between an attack on Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C., and a widely criticized case against a civil rights nonprofit group.
Jordan, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, told Fox New viewers Sunday that it shouldn’t be “lost on anyone” that what he described as a third assassination attempt on the president happened the same week the Southern Poverty Law Center was hit with dubious fraud charges for paying confidential informants to infiltrate hate groups.
Accusing the nonprofit, which tracks hate groups and has long been the focus of right-wing criticism, of paying to generate the “very hate they’re supposed to be fighting,” he told host Maria Bartiromo, “I don’t think that’s an accident that we learn about those two things the same week.”
Jordan did not offer further evidence to support the alleged link.
“This stuff has got to stop,” he went on while accusing the left of pushing divisive rhetoric that may have inspired the shooter. White House officials say they have reviewed writings from the suspect in which he said he was trying to target officials from the administration. He was apprehended after firing several shots outside the Washington Hilton ballroom where the event was taking place, and he remains in custody.
