CNN Stands by Reporting on Pelosi Forming 1/6 Select Committee After She Denies Making Announcement

A story about Speaker Nancy Pelosi forming a committee to investigate the January 6 Capitol insurrection had quite a journey on Tuesday evening.

It all began with a live report from CNN’s Manu Raju telling viewers that Pelosi will name a select committee to probe the attack on the Capitol. But soon after, Pelosi’s deputy chief-of-staff tweeted that the speaker told colleagues that she is actually going to announce whether she will be naming a committee this week.

Clarification on tonight’s meeting of the Steering and Policy Committee. Speaker Pelosi told Members she plans to announce WHETHER she will create a select committee THIS WEEK. Her preference continues to be a bipartisan commission which Senate Republicans are blocking.

— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) June 22, 2021

Moreover, Pelosi told reporters that she made no such announcement.

Speaker Pelosi denied these reports to @lindsemcpherson, telling reporters “No I did not make that announcement. Somebody put out a false report.” https://t.co/CHFycIMFGC

— Nathaniel Reed (@ReedReports) June 22, 2021

But less than an hour later, CNN’s Anderson Cooper doubled down – on air – on Raju’s reporting:

CNN has learned from two sources familiar with the subject that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to appoint a select committee to investigate the January insurrection. They tell us she said so this evening to Democrats on the chamber’s Steering and Policy Committee.

One source [was] telling us the speaker indicated she believes a regular standing committee of several dozen members just would not work, and notes the House has already given the Senate several weeks to get a bill on an independent commission, something Republicans have blocked. Speaker Pelosi later denied that she had made a decision. CNN stands by its reporting and the sources who confirmed her initial reports.

The report on CNN.com similarly states, “CNN stands by its reporting and the sources who confirmed her initial remarks.”

Last month the House passed a bill that would’ve authorized the formation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Capitol attack, but the measure failed in the Senate, where it failed to garner the necessary 60 votes to invoke cloture. The vote was 54 in favor and 35 against.

Watch above via CNN.

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