WAPAKONETA — Rep. Jim Jordan visited Wapakoneta Monday as part of a multi-stop tour of the city held during Congress’s August recess.
“We started this morning off at Republican headquarters. We’re going to visit with the mayor, speaking at the Rotary, just doing what representatives are supposed to do — go out and talk to the to the people you get the chance and the privilege of representing,” Jordan said.
Jordan spent at least 30 minutes of the day’s morning walking through exhibits and talking about the first man on the moon while touring the Armstrong Air & Space Museum with Executive Director Dante Centuori.
The final stop of the tour brought the two to the STEM Inspiration Center, where a few museum officials gave the Congressman a quick run through on how to program and operate a robot.
Jordan also got an update on the National Aviation Heritage Area. Managed by the National Aviation Heritage Alliance, the eight-county region of mid-central Ohio, which includes Auglaize County, houses some of world’s most important historical sites in early aviation, and the alliance is working to highlight and promote Ohio’s aviation legacy.
“I think it’s always important to have the officials know what’s going on — know what things that we’re planning, the significance of certain entities in the district are — because you never know what might come up in the future,” Centuori said.
After Jordan was asked about this year’s election season, the Congressman also took some time to repeat some of the same points tweeted by President Donald Trump this weekend in response to the shooting death of a counter-protestor in Portland.
“The scary thing is what Democratic mayors are allowing to happen in their cities. (Attorney General) Bill Barr asked this question five weeks ago in the big hearing we had there in the Judiciary Committee. He said to the Democrats, ask them: ‘Why don’t you denounce the mob?’” Jordan said.
Democratic mayors, including Portland’s Mayor Ted Wheeler, have denounced violence and riots by protestors, but he has also asked that Trump send no federal intervention to the city for fear of inciting further violence due to the use of unnecessary force.
In a statement released this past Friday, Wheeler put the blame on Trump for trying to use “images of violence or vandalism” as his “ticket to re-election.”
“There is no place for looting, arson, or vandalism in our city,” Wheeler said in the written statement. “Those who commit criminal acts will be apprehended and prosecuted under the law.”
For a solution to protests, Jordan encouraged prosecutors in those areas to use the full extent of the law to put away alleged criminals and investigate what’s happening.
“So if you’re crossing state lines, and you engage in riot and destruction of property and actually you’re arrested, we need to find who paid your hotel, who paid your plane ticket,” Jordan said.
Evidence of out-state provocation has been limited, especially when compared to the size of the protests that arose after the death of George Floyd.
According to a Washington Post data analysis conducted in late June, over 14,000 people from 49 cities had been arrested as fallout from the protests when they kicked into gear in late May. Of the 14,000 arrested, 80 had received federal charges.
In Kenosha, Wis., the Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth announced the arrests of 175 people this past week, and 102 had named addresses in 44 other cities as their places of residence. That number includes Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old who has been charged with killing two protestors. Rittenhouse drove to Kenosha from his hometown in Illinois located roughly 20 minutes away.
