Capitol riot probe
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney accepts role on committee.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday named Republican Rep. Liz Cheney to a new select committee on the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, elevating the most unyielding GOP critic of former President Donald Trump to work alongside seven Democrats on the high-profile investigation.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, will lead the panel, which will investigate what went wrong around the Capitol when hundreds of Trump supporters broke into the building. The rioters brutally beat police, hunted for lawmakers and interrupted the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump.
Standing with other members of the committee after a meeting together in Pelosi’s office, Cheney said she was “honored” to serve on the committee and that her duty is to the Constitution.
“And that will always be above politics,” Cheney said.
Her appointment came just hours after House Republican leader Kevin Mccarthy threatened to strip Republicans of committee assignments if they accepted an appointment from Pelosi to the panel. Mccarthy told a closeddoor meeting of first-term House GOP members on Wednesday that he, not Pelosi, controls Republicans’ committee assignments, according to a top GOP aide.
After Pelosi’s announcement, Mccarthy demurred, saying at a news conference that “I’m not making any threats” about committee assignments. But he made clear he wasn’t happy with Cheney.
“I was shocked that she would accept something from Speaker Pelosi,” Mccarthy said. “It would seem to me, since I didn’t hear from her, maybe she’s closer to her than us.”
Asked if she had been informed she would lose her committee assignments, Cheney said she had not.
The House voted to form the 13-member panel Wednesday over the objections of 190 Republicans. Cheney, who was ousted from GOP leadership this year over her criticism of Trump, was one of only two Republicans who supported forming the committee. Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger was the other.
It is unclear when the other five members of the panel will be appointed. The resolution specifies that they will be named after Pelosi consults with Mccarthy.
In addition to Thompson, the other Democratic panel members will be House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren, and Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Elaine Luria of Virginia, Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Pete Aguilar of California.
Murphy, a moderate Democrat whose family fled Vietnam to come to the United States, said she is “acutely aware that democracy is fragile” and feels a responsibility to make sure the Jan. 6th insurrection doesn’t happen again.
After the meeting with Pelosi, Thompson told reporters that they hoped to hold their first hearing with those officers who fought the protesters “as a positive statement to the men and women who put their lives on the line.”
It’s unclear whether the panel would call Mccarthy to testify, or others who are publicly known to have spoken with Trump during the run-up to the siege and as the attack unfolded.
As one of only 10 Republicans — and the only member of GOP leadership — who voted for Trump’s second impeachment, Cheney has separated herself from most of her Republican colleagues in recent months by directly blaming the former president for the insurrection.