McCarthy picks GOP members for insurrection probe
WASHINGTON — House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has chosen five Republicans to sit on the new select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, signaling that Republicans will participate in the investigation that they have staunchly opposed.
McCarthy, of Bakersfield, selected Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who recently visited former President Donald Trump on trips to the U.S.Mexico border and Trump’s New Jersey golf club, to be the top Republican on the panel, according to a Republican familiar with the decision and an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi must approve the names before they are final under committee rules.
McCarthy has also tapped Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, North Dakota Rep. Kelly Armstrong and Texas Rep. Troy Nehls to serve on the panel, according to the two people who shared the names on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.
The five Republicans selected by McCarthy have strongly supported Trump, whose supporters laid siege to the Capitol building on Jan. 6 and interrupted the certification of President Biden’s victory. Banks, Jordan and Nehls all voted to overturn Biden’s win that day, even after the rioting. Davis and Armstrong voted to certify Biden’s win.
McCarthy’s picks come after all but two Republicans opposed the creation of the 13person select committee in a House vote last month, with most in the GOP arguing that the majorityDemocratic panel would conduct a partisan probe. House Democrats originally attempted to create an evenly split, independent commission to investigate the insurrection, but that effort fell short when it was blocked by Senate Republicans.
House Republicans have largely remained loyal to Trump despite the violent insurrection of his supporters that sent many of them running for their lives. Banks made clear in a statement Monday evening that he would take a combative approach to his leadership on the panel, sharply criticizing the Democrats who had set it up.
“Make no mistake, Nancy Pelosi created this committee solely to malign conservatives and to justify the Left’s authoritarian agenda,” Banks wrote in the statement.
Jordan, one of Trump’s staunchest defenders through his two impeachments and the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said after the House vote to form the committee that he believed the panel is “impeachment three” against the former president. Trump was impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate both times.