Rep. Jim Jordan James (Jim) Daniel JordanHouse panel pulls Powell into partisan battles over pandemic Sunday shows preview: Justice Ginsburg dies, sparking partisan battle over vacancy before election House passes resolution condemning anti-Asian discrimination relating to coronavirus MORE (R-Ohio) on Sunday pushed back on questions about whether it was appropriate for President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenFormer Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick Bloomberg rolls out M ad buy to boost Biden in Florida MORE and his son Hunter Biden, pointing to the fact that the requested probe “didn’t happen.”

"Are you comfortable with the investigation that was requested?" CBS’s Margaret Brennan asked Jordan, noting that State Department official David Holmes testified that he overheard a call between Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland Gordon SondlandGOP chairman vows to protect whistleblowers following Vindman retirement over 'bullying' Top Democrat slams Trump's new EU envoy: Not 'a political donor's part-time job' Trump names new EU envoy, filling post left vacant by impeachment witness Sondland MORE and Trump in which he "heard President Trump ask, 'So, he is gonna do the investigation?'"

ADVERTISEMENT

“I thought we were supposed to be looking at the potential impact on the 2016 election and foreign countries’ involvement with that,” Jordan said before Brennan reminded him that the investigation mentioned was allegedly a probe into the Bidens.

“I don’t think that’s what took place,” Jordan said, continuing to note that U.S. aid to Ukraine had been released without any investigation, so the quid pro quo “didn’t happen.”

Pressed by Brennan, Jordan, who has been transferred to the House Intelligence Committee for the public phase of the impeachment inquiry, pivoted to attacking Democrats for being “out to get this president.”

Jordan declined to say whether he believed Sondland, who is scheduled to publicly testify this week, was a credible witness but noted that the EU ambassador “said there was never any quid pro quo in the text message responding to others on that text chain.”

Sondland has since said the message in question was dictated by Trump and testified to the existence of such an arrangement.

Echoing his earlier defenses of Trump, Jordan told Brennan that military aid to Ukraine had been suspended so U.S. officials could determine Zelensky was “the real deal” in terms of eliminating corruption. The Department of Defense certified that Ukraine had taken sufficient action on corruption before the White House suspended the aid.