ONLY two House Republicans voted to support the creation of a committee to probe the origins of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol siege.
Wednesday's House vote to establish the panel tasked with determining the root causes of the attack on the nation’s capital was 222-190 – with only Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois breaking from the GOP to back the select committee.
The one-sided vote comes after last month’s Senate vote was 54-35 – well short of the 60 votes needed to consider a House-passed bill that would have formed a 10-member commission evenly split between both Democrats and Republicans.
"Our nation, and the families of the brave law enforcement officers who were injured defending us or died following the attack, deserve answers," said Rep. Cheney wrote in a statement following the vote.
"I believe this select committee is our only remaining option."
"As I have said, I believe a bipartisan independent commission is the best approach — and although the House was able to pass the measure, it was blocked by the Senate. Today, I voted in support of the Select Committee because the truth matters," Kinzinger stated following the vote.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told lawmakers in the chamber: "We will be judged by future generations as to how we value our democracy."
On Monday, Pelosi confirmed she would be appointing eight members of the 13 members (including its chairperson) to the committee and five would be appointed “after consultation” with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
But Pelosi carries supreme powers to override McCarthy’s requests.
"The speaker has never talked to me about it," McCarthy said, according to CNN.
There no assurances that GOP members will even participate in the committee.
House Republican Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana sent out a Tuesday memo to his members to oppose the Jan. 6 select committee resolution, making accusations that it “is likely to pursue a partisan agenda," according to the AP.
There were two bipartisan Senate committees that convened earlier in June that submitted a report that would fortify the Capital’s security to ward off future riots but did little to determine what caused the siege.
Fellow Ohioan Rep. Anthony Gonzalez was troubled by the one-sided composition of the Jan. 6 committee in the House.
Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio rejected the House committee as "incomplete and insufficient” because it failed to expand its scope and investigate other situations such as the 2017 shooting of Rep. Scalise who was wounded at a baseball field, according to the Associated Press.
"I supported a bipartisan independent commission. This is the opposite," he told CNN, ahead of the vote.
For Cheney, a Republican who has gone against the grain compared to her fellow Conservatives and proven to be an outspoken opponent of former President Donald Trump, said her party cowered when it should be meeting the moment.
"Since January 6th, the courage of my party's leaders has faded.
But the threat to our Republic has not," she added.
She then claimed the Jan. 6 Capital committee’s success will rely on it acting and deliberating “sober, professional, and non-partisan.”
“The threat to our democracy is far too grave for grandstanding or political maneuvering,” she went on.
And then she called on the committee to start moving forward by enforcing subpoenas, recruit “skilled counsel” and “do its job thoroughly and expeditiously.”
“The American people need and deserve a full accounting,” she wrote.
“We must ensure that what happened on January 6, 2021 never happens again.”
Ever since Jan. 6 when Trump's supporters laid siege claiming the incumbent president was the victor while Congress certified Trump's loss to President Joe Biden the fractures and split between party lines has grown.
Both sides accuse the other of playing politics.
“I think for some on the other side, nothing that gets to the truth will ever be good enough, because they do not want the truth,” Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern told The AP.
The Jan. 6, 2020 attack was the worst on the Capitol in 200 years and forced the certification of Joe Biden’s certification over Trump to stall as lawmakers fled their posts to shelter in safety.
Four people died in the riot, and a Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick who collapsed and died afterward of what authorities said were natural causes.
Numerous US Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department members attended Wednesday's vote, including Gladys Sicknick, the mother of Officer Sicknick.
Gladys Sicknick praised the vote to establish the Jan. 6 committee, according to Bloomberg.
“They are doing what they are supposed to be doing,” she said.
Source: Read Full Article
