Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan's office extended the invitation to Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis, who was jailed last year for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, to attend the president's final State of the Union Address, but he insisted Wednesday he wasn't trying to make a statement by inviting her.
"Frankly, yesterday our office was approached by the Family Research Council," Jordan told
CNN's "New Day" program. "We weren't trying to make a statement. We were trying to give a ticket to friends and the Family Research Council."
But, Jordan said that "everyone" knows his position on marriage, which is that "marriage should be what it's always been. I've never changed on that and never will. I think that has served western culture well. Last night was not about that."
Instead, Tuesday night was about President Barack Obama's failed policies, said Jordan.
"Seven years of progress, we have 94 million people out of work, 48 million people on food stamps and we have a health care system that's driven up the cost of deductibles [and] premiums," said Jordan.
"Everything they told us about health care when they marketed this to the American people six years ago has been inaccurate."
Jordan, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, said that he also found it "interesting" Tuesday night that Obama did not mention the news about 10 American sailors being captured, and then released, by Iran.
"The respect for the United States is not at the level it should be around the world," Jordan said. "When the president went through some of his, quote, 'foreign policy success stories' last night he mentioned Benghazi, for goodness sake."
But, Jordan said, he doesn't buy the competing theories about the Benghazi attacks, but he buys the facts.
"I buy what Secretary [Hillary] Clinton told her daughter that night, we know it was an al-Qaida attack," said Jordan. "She said we know, not we speculate, we think, we know it was a terrorist attack, not anything to do with a video."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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