House erupts in anger over Jan. 6 and Trump’s role

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The fight started just after noon when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she would reject two of the five Republican nominees to the panel, Reps. Jim Banks (Ind.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio). Both are among the most staunch defenders of former President Trump and deny his role in instigating the attack, and Pelosi — fueled by objections from within her caucus — accused the pair of threatening “the integrity” of the coming investigation.

Pelosi didn’t budge, prompting McCarthy to yank the other three Republicans from the panel.

Jordan and Banks have been among the most vocal Trump defenders following the Capitol riot, and rank-and-file Democrats raced to defend Pelosi’s decision to deny the pair a seat on the investigative panel.

Most Republicans had opposed the creation of the select committee last month, criticizing Democrats for limiting the scope of the probe to the events of Jan. 6. Republicans had pushed to expand the scope to include other episodes of political violence.

Yet the select committee was formed because Republicans had rejected the Democrats’ first choice of investigative strategies: the creation of a bipartisan independent committee, modeled on the 9/11 commission, to conduct the probe. Legislation forming that panel was negotiated by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and GOP Rep. John Katko (N.Y.) and backed by 35 House Republicans, but was blocked by Republicans in the Senate.

Democrats have a powerful ally in Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a fierce Trump critic who accepted Pelosi’s invitation to sit on the select committee and is now bashing Republican leaders, saying they have sided with Trump over the Constitution. She has reserved some of her harshest language for McCarthy.

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Article URL : https://thehill.com/homenews/house/564244-house-erupts-in-anger-over-jan-6-and-trumps-role