House Democrat Slams Jim Jordan's Tyre Nichols Remark: It's 'Not A Phase' For Him

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) went after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for his remarks Sunday on “Meet the Press” regarding whether laws could have prevented the killing of Tyre Nichols last month in Memphis, Tennessee. 

Jordan, now the House Judiciary Committee chair, said on the program he doesn’t know if reform “can stop that evil” seen in videos that showed Memphis police officers repeatedly beating Nichols following a traffic stop on Jan. 7. Nichols, a 29-year-old father of one, died in the hospital three days after the police beating. Five Memphis police officers have been fired and are charged in the death.

“I don’t know that any law, any training, any reform is going to change,” Jordan said.

“The fact that we saw that these individuals, these five individuals did not have any respect for life, and again, I don’t think these five guys represent the vast, vast majority of law enforcement, but I don’t know if there’s anything you can do to stop the kind of evil we saw in that video.”

The hosts of “Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out the News,” in a clip shared by The Hill, asked Frost, a freshman congressman, whether Jordan’s assessment was right or “is he simply going through his nihilistic, ‘nothing matters’ goth phase.”

“He’s going through that goth phase,” Frost responded.

“And it’s not just a phase: This has been his politics, right? ... Imagine if generations ago, when the civil rights movement was at its peak and people were fighting for justice, if people like Jim Jordan said, ’Laws are not going to do anything. It’s just human nature. There’s just evil in the world.”

Frost’s comment isn’t the only time that Gen Z’s first congressman has criticized Republicans.

Frost, prior to being sworn in to his House seat, revealed during an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl in early January that a bad credit score had affected his ability to rent an apartment in Washington. 

The Republican National Committee’s research Twitter account cited his soon-to-come salary and attempted to dunk on Frost, but he wasn’t having any of it.

“So out of touch that they don’t understand how renting an apartment works,” he wrote.