“It’s time that every GOP member of the House realize what their constituents already know: Nancy Pelosi is not going to hold an open, honest, and thorough investigation into the events of Jan. 6.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s handling of the Jan.6 Capitol breach investigation has been such a partisan fiasco that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the Speaker has ‘broken Congress.”
McCarthy told reporters on Monday that Pelosi’s refusal to seat Representatives Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) “just makes the whole committee a sham.” McCarthy has threatened to pull the committee assignments of any GOP House Members who participate in Pelosi’s select committee.
Representatives Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) are set to be seated on the panel which is scheduled to begin hearing testimony Tuesday morning. Cheney and Kinzinger were among 10 GOP members who voted to impeach President Trump following the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.
Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning is urging McCarthy to take action against any GOP members who participate in Pelosi’s sham hearing. “McCarthy has been very clear that no GOP members should serve on that committee and that anyone who serves in defiance should be stripped of all committee assignments,” Manning said. “Pelosi is not seeking the truth about events of that day,” Manning added. “If she were, she’d start by answering questions about her own failure to secure the Capitol.”
Pelosi has denied McCarthy’s request to seat Reps. Jordan and Banks on the select committee. Both men have been critical of Pelosi’s handling of security at the Capitol and have been stymied in their attempts to hold Pelosi accountable for the multiple failures of security that day.
Rep. Jordan said Pelosi rejected him from the committee because she doesn’t want to answer “fundamental questions.”
Rep. Jordan told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, “The fundamental question is why there wasn’t a proper security posture that day?
“It wasn’t like we didn’t know there was a rally in town. It wasn’t like we didn’t know it would be a big rally, after all, it was a President Trump rally.”
According to the MailOnline Rep. Jordan noted that Democrats have normalized “anarchy.”
The Speaker’s office tweeted that she wasn’t in charge of security operations on January 6. Pelosi’s spokesperson Drew Hammill posted: “I will say again the Speaker of the House is not in charge of the security of the US Capital Complex.
Rep. Banks said he was rejected because Pelosi “doesn’t want to talk about what happened at the Capitol that day” and is “only interested in a narrative.”
“Due to the rules of the United States Capitol, the power structure of the Capitol, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, has more control and authority and responsibility over the leadership of the Capitol Police than anyone else in the United States Capitol,” Banks said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
“So she doesn’t want us to ask these questions because, at the end of the day, she is ultimately responsible for the breakdown of security at the capitol that happened on Jan. 6,” he said.
Blasting the Speaker, McCarthy said: “This represents an egregious abuse of power and will irreparably damage this institution.
“This panel has lost all legitimacy and credibility and shows the Speaker is more interested in playing politics than seeking the truth.”
According to Politico late Tuesday afternoon, there is a growing group of GOP lawmakers in the House who want McCarthy to punish Kinzinger and Cheney for joining the Jan. 6 committee.
Ryan Nobles and Melanie Zanona on CNN reported: “Initially, most rank-and-file Republicans were content to let Rep. Cheney serve without much of a fight, but the addition of Rep. Kinzinger has changed the conversation and has put a new level of pressure on McCarthy. While the loudest cries have come from members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, sources say that the sentiment has started to spread beyond the hard-line crew.
But kicking them off their committees would be easier said than done. Speaker Pelosi ultimately controls committee membership. She could theoretically just re-appoint them to their current posts.
“It’s time that every GOP member of the House realize what their constituents already know, Nancy Pelosi is not going to hold an open, honest, and thorough investigation into the events of Jan. 6,” concluded Manning. “That would require her to accept responsibility for her failure to secure the Capitol. And it is clear she is attempting to pin that on President Trump and his supporters.”
Catherine Mortensen is Vice President of Communications at Americans for Limited Government.
