Pelosi Assigned Cheney To Panel Investigating Jan. 6 Riot
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday assigned Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and seven Democrats to a new pick out committee to investigate the violent Jan. 6 rebellion at the Capitol.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will lead the panel. It will inspect what went wrong round the Capitol when lots of supporters of then-President Donald Trump broke into the building, hunted for lawmakers and interrupted the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's election victory.
Cheney, R-Wyo., stated in a assertion that she is "honored" to serve on the committee and that "Congress is obligated to behavior a full investigation of the most serious assault on our Capitol since 1814."
The House approved the panel on Wednesday over the objections Republicans. Cheney, who was eliminated from GOP leadership this year because of her criticism of Trump, was one of only two Republicans who supported forming the committee.
Pelosi, D-Calif., formed the committee after Senate Republicans blocked an independent, bipartisan probe.
Besides Thompson, D-Miss., the other Democratic members of the panel will be Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Zoe Lofgren of California, Elaine Luria of Virginia, Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Pete Aguilar of Texas.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had threatened to strip Republicans of committee assignments if they accept an appointment from Pelosi to be part of the committee, a top House GOP aide stated Thursday.
The warning by McCarthy, R-Calif., underscores party leaders' opposition to the committee and their desire to shape the narrative about its work as much as they can. Republicans have complained that the panel will be dominated by Democrats and will produce a skewed, partisan report, even though the GOP formerly scuttled an earlier Democratic attempt to form a bipartisan commission.
McCarthy informed a closed-door meeting of first-term House GOP members on Wednesday that he, not Pelosi controls Republicans' committee assignments, the aide said. He informed them that if Pelosi names them to the committee and they accept, they should plan on getting all their committee assignments from her — an apparent threat to get rid of them from their current panels.