House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy previously pledged to conduct a Republican-led investigation into the January 6 Capitol insurrection. However, it appears to have fallen through amongst the caucus.
A GOP aide told The Daily Beast that McCarthy’s pledge to launch a GOP-led investigation into the Capitol riots has gone poorly, as McCarthy has not shown any signs he plans to continue with his pledge. The aide went on to say that not even his fellow Republican colleagues, who are also staunch allies of the disgraced former President Donald Trump, are interested in serving in that said committee that McCarthy plans to put together.
McCarthy’s pledge comes as Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vetoed two of his recommendations to the House Committee; Jim Jordan and Jim Banks. While McCarthy has railed against Pelosi for making the committee partisan, he did not acknowledge that two House Republicans have been appointed to serve: Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
“None of us want this to be a priority,” said the GOP aide. “I don’t think there’s any member that wants to serve on this committee.”
“That elements of the Republican Party are comfortable defending insurrectionists as political prisoners is a new low in the post-Trump era, and proof that post-Trump isn’t really post-Trump, people are still clearly playing to him,” added the GOP aide.
A senior House Republican aide also told The Daily Beast that the GOP would likely continue to call the insurrectionists political prisoners in order to steer clear of the pressure from the base for not challenging the results of the 2020 election. Trump’s refusal to accept his loss led to the peddling of the false claim that the election was stolen from him despite over 60 lawsuits challenging the results were dismissed even by Trump-appointed judges.
Previously, McCarthy was blasted by the bipartisan House panel for falsely claiming that the twice-impeached former president was cleared of wrongdoing and that the FBI had already investigated the riots. In the midst of his false claim, McCarthy also sought to blame Pelosi for politicizing the handling of the investigation.
Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson and vice-chair Rep. Liz Cheney issued a blunt rebuke of McCarthy’s claims, saying that McCarthy’s claims are baseless as they consulted with the federal agencies involved.