On Tuesday morning, it emerged that Kim Davis would attend this evening’s State of the Union. Her lawyers, however, declined to say who had invited her. Thankfully, the Huffington Post has figured it out: Jim Jordan, Republican from Ohio and chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.

After a morning that seems like it make for a fairly decent political comedy of errors, maybe directed by the Coen brothers, or maybe something much more low budget, Jordan confirmed that the tickets had come from him:

“Yeah, so we gave a ticket to—at the request of the Family Research Council—we gave the ticket to Kim Davis’ family,” he said.

Jordan said he was fine with his ticket going to Davis, who has been lionized by many conservatives and chastised by many liberals for her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and that the secrecy wasn’t intentional.

“I found out today,” Jordan said. “And I’m being totally honest with you: That’s—Family Research Council asked us, her family wanted a ticket, and we said ‘OK.’”

Jordan’s Freedom Caucus, the vanguard of the radical right in the House of Representatives, led the coup against former Speaker John Boehner last fall.


Photo via AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.