Kevin McCarthy Expresses ‘Shock’ At Liz Cheney Joining 1/6 Committee: ‘Maybe She’s Closer to’ Pelosi ‘Than to Us’

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy swung at Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WI) over her involvement in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s select committee to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol.

McCarthy held a news conference on Thursday shortly after Pelosi announced her choices for the committee’s membership, and after Cheney expressed her appreciation for being named to the position. Cheney’s involvement with the committee comes months McCarthy and his fellow Republicans ousted Cheney from her leadership role in the Congressional GOP because she holds Donald Trump personally responsible for the violent riot carried out by his supporters.

By contrast, McCarthy was among those who perpetuated Trump’s “big lie” that he won the election and that it was corrupted by mass voter fraud.

During his presser, McCarthy immediately faced an avalanche of questions about January 6th, which he deflected by focusing on Capitol security, accusing Pelosi of playing politics, and dodging questions about Trump’s accountability for the riot. At one point, he was asked ” Do you believe that, effectively, by Liz Cheney accepting the committee assignment on January 6th, that she’s left the Republican conference?”

“I was shocked that she would accept something from Speaker Pelosi,” McCarthy said. “It would seem to me since I didn’t hear from her, maybe she’s closer to her than to us. I don’t know.”

McCarthy’s comments come amid reports that he threatened to strip his GOP colleagues of their congressional committee assignments if they go along with the 1/6 committee. Those threats were blown off by Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), meanwhile McCarthy continued the presser by saying “it would be shocking to me to have a Republican to go to Speaker Pelosi of all people to accept a committee assignment.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.

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