House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the five Republicans he chose to sit on a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot announced that they would form their own investigative body after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked two of McCarthy’s picks to sit on her Democratic-controlled committee.
“We will run our own investigation,” McCarthy said Wednesday, in a hastily called news conference. “Why was the Capitol so ill-prepared for that day when they knew on Dec. 14 they had a problem? And what have we done to make sure that never happens again?”
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He railed against Pelosi for creating a “sham process” and refusing to seat Republican members on a committee, a line not previously crossed in the House.
“House Democrats must answer this question: Why are you allowing a lame-duck speaker to destroy this institution?” McCarthy said, referencing Pelosi’s pledge not to seek the speakership again after the end of her term, or foreshadowing Republicans winning back the House in 2022.
Earlier on Wednesday, Pelosi said that she would not allow Indiana Rep. Jim Banks or Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan on the Jan. 6 riot committee but did not raise objections to the other three members that McCarthy recommended: Reps. Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, and Troy Nehls of Texas.
“With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these Members, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee,” Pelosi said in a statement.
The select committee bill allows Pelosi to appoint 13 members in “consultation” with the minority leader — a difference from a Republican-blocked bipartisan, bicameral Jan. 6 commission bill, which would not have allowed Democrats veto power.
In response, McCarthy said that he would pull all of his Republican recommendations from the committee if Jordan and Banks cannot be on it.
The select committee is set to start its first hearing next week.
McCarthy’s five picks appeared alongside him at a press conference on Wednesday, with the Republicans accusing Pelosi of nixing the members purely out of partisan political motivations.
Pelosi “knew we would fight back against their political games, and that’s why she didn’t want us to participate in this committee,” Banks said. “It just goes to show this is entirely a political exercise on her part. It’s a shame. The American people deserve better.”
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One Republican lawmaker will remain on the select committee: Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who was ousted from her No. 3 House leadership position earlier this year following her vocal criticism of former President Donald Trump and those who doubt that the 2020 election was free and fair. Pelosi appointed Cheney to the committee.
