On Friday, to help get Todd Blanche confirmed as Attorney General, President Trump declared that the DOJ's Anti-Weaponization Fund was dead. But on Saturday, he threatened to move ahead with it if Blanche was not approved. On CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, host Dana Bash repeatedly pressed and interrupted Jim Jordan on this fund, and whether it should be used to compensate David Hearn, who was wrongfully accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool.
After noting Trump's latest threat, she asked Jordan if he believes the Anti-Weaponization fund is dead, and he soon referenced Joe Biden's Attorney General, and that didn't sit well with Bash.
JORDAN: The idea that they won't confirm him, (Blanche) and they voted to confirm Merrick Garland, the guy who gave us a memo that said, oh, we're going to go spy on parents at school board meetings....his Justice Department did the memorandum --
BASH: What--
JORDAN: And said if you're a pro-life Catholic--
BASH: What do you think--
JORDAN: You're an extremist. They confirmed that guy, but they won't confirm Todd Blanche?--
BASH: What do you think about the fund?
JORDAN: That makes no sense.
BASH: What do you think about the fund? Do you think the fund is a good idea?
Jordan went back to Garland, and Bash wasn't pleased.
JORDAN: Well, it's no different than what Merrick Garland did with Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. He paid Peter Strzok $1.2 million--
BASH: So, yes, you think that it should stay alive?
JORDAN: I'm saying, there's a fund right now that compensates people who've been wronged--
BASH: Well, to add $1.8 billion to it.
JORDAN: And Merrick Garland said, Peter Strzok got $1.2 million, for goodness' sake. That fund is for people like Mark Houck, who had his door kicked in front of his wife and seven kids....and they took him to court, and, of course, the jury found him not guilty. It's for folks like that. That's what that fund's for.
BASH: Okay, so I want to...
JORDAN: And it's been used in the past to compensate Peter Strzok and Lisa -- Lisa Page got $800,000, for goodness sake.
Bash would then attempt a gotcha moment, bringing up last Friday's DOJ move to dismiss charges against former U.S. Olympian David Hearn, who had been indicted for vandalizing the Reflecting Pool. After playing a clip of U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum -- speaking to Bash shortly after the original indictment, assuring her they had evidence -- she asked Jordan if Hearn should be eligible to receive compensation under the fund, given what he has gone through.
JORDAN: That will be up to the Board. I mean if they--
BASH: Well, what do you think?
JORDAN: I don't make the decision. It's up to them--
BASH: I know, but you have an opinion.
JORDAN: What I do know is, Peter Strzok shouldn't have got $1.2 million--
BASH: So you have an opinion on that.
JORDAN: --When he was trying to undermine President Trump's election campaign--
BASH: You have an opinion that he shouldn't have gotten it. What about David Hearn?
JORDAN: Well, that will be up to the Board. And I don't know all the facts. This story just broke...What I do know is, President Trump is focused on making America great and focused on making Washington beautiful again.
BASH: OK.
JORDAN: And he's been focused on that. We will have to get to the facts of this case.
After making a snide remark, about him knowing U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro well, because, "she used to be on Fox", Bash continued to press Jordan on Hearn.
BASH: They were trying to send a man who was innocent to jail based on lies about vandalism. He was accused of crimes that he did not commit. As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, does that bother you?
JORDAN: If those are the facts, of course, but I don't know that those are the facts.... I do know, what happened in the Garland-Biden Justice Department--
BASH: You keep turning it back to Biden. I'm asking you about now.
JORDAN: I'm not turning it back. I'm telling you things I know about. I don't know all the facts with this case.
After more interruptions, Bash curtly invited Jordan to come back on the show once he has learned all the facts of the Hearn case. Her final topic involved Jordan sending a criminal referral to the DOJ in July, for former Special Counsel Jack Smith, accusing him of misleading Congress, and Bash, continued to talk over her guest, as you can see on the video below.
Maybe Bash was taking out some frustration on Jordan, after earlier getting schooled by HHS Secretary RFK Jr., or maybe, this is just CNN! We can remember back to 2023, when Bash fawned over the imagery of Jack Smith walking to Subway for lunch. Her ex-husband John King later suggested this lunch trip was a grand anti-bullying message sent to Trump.
when CNN filmed a "man of the people" segment in 2023 as Jack Smith went to Subway for lunch.
