Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) outlined his vision for the House Judiciary Committee's investigations at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, claiming that the truth behind nearly every major news story from the last four years is "worse than we thought."
CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp introduced Jordan, who chairs the Judiciary Committee and the new subcommittee investigating the alleged "weaponization" of government against conservatives, to the audience as "someone who may just be the most powerful guy in Washington, D.C." They discussed stories such as the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story as examples of instances in which conservative dissent was squashed.
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"The one thing that we learn, always in these things, the only thing we get wrong, is it's always worse than we thought," Jordan said.
He said his goal with the Judiciary Committee investigations is to uncover how the federal government allegedly encroached on the First Amendment rights of regular citizens.
"The most important liberty you have, in my judgment, is the right to speak," he said. "Because if you can't speak, you can't practice your faith, you can't share your faith, you can't petition your government, you don't really have freedom of the press. That's the most important one, and that's the one they go after."
The "weaponization" subcommittee held its first hearing earlier this month as it set the stage for further inquiries into the relationship between intelligence agencies and social media giants such as Twitter. The second hearing next week will take testimony from the writers who reported the "Twitter Files," which made public internal Twitter communications between employees and government actors.
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The annual conference returned to Maryland for the first time in two years. Schlapp acknowledged during his set with Jordan that "there's a lot of chatter in the media about who is here and not here" since several high-profile Republicans are skipping the festivities, drawing speculation that the sexual assault allegations against Schlapp may have played into their decision not to attend.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) will be absent from this year's conference.