‘Not On My Bucket List’: Even House Republicans Who Voted to Impeach Trump Don’t Want to Serve on Jan. 6 Commission

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has an unusual task on his desk this week: appoint five House Republicans to serve on the Jan. 6 select committee, which Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) created after Republicans blocked a bipartisan commission on the issue from moving forward. This all comes after McCarthy himself had threatened any Republicans who accepted an appointment from Pelosi with being stripped of their committees, and many Republicans — even those who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump — have publicly expressed their unwillingness to participate.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who was ousted from House Republican leadership earlier this year for her apostasy regarding Trump, made it clear that McCarthy can go pound sand as far as she’s concerned. She accepted Pelosi’s nomination and issued a statement saying that “[t]hose who are responsible for the attack need to be held accountable and this select committee will fulfill that responsibility in a professional, expeditious, and non-partisan manner.”

McCarthy, as minority leader, has the power to nominate five Republicans to the select committee. He can refuse — a possibility that Pelosi shrugged off, telling reporters that even if McCarthy doesn’t make any nominations, “we have a quorum,” and they’ll proceed with Cheney as the lone Republican if they need to do so.

The highly political nature of investigating the actions of a former president who still wields enormous influence over the GOP base has many House Republicans — especially those in vulnerable districts — playing a frantic game of “not it!”

CNN reported on multiple Republicans who had gone so far as to publicly declare they wanted no part of the select committee:

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington issued multiple public statements: she told reporters she opposed the select panel and later put out a formal statement making crystal clear she wouldn’t serve on it if asked. New York Rep. John Katko, who brokered a bipartisan deal to establish an independent investigation that was blocked by Senate Republicans, said he has little appetite to participate in a “turbo-charged partisan exercise.” Veteran Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, meanwhile, quipped to CNN: It’s “not on my bucket list.”

So far, other than Cheney, the only House Republicans who have said they would serve on the committee are the traveling Trumplican circus duo of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), both ardent supporters of the former president who have joined him in promoting his baseless claims of election fraud and misinformation regarding the events of Jan. 6.

If McCarthy has any temptation to send the metaphorical-bomb-throwers Gaetz and Greene to vex Pelosi, that’s tempered by Pelosi’s power to veto anyone he appoints, which she undoubtedly would do if either of those two names were put forward.

McCarthy has not yet announced if he will make any appointments at all, or who he might pick if he does.

Both McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had scathing criticism for Trump on Jan. 6, after the rioters had been cleared away and the process to certify the Electoral College resumed, but they both voted against impeaching him for his actions that day.

In announcing his vote against impeachment, McCarthy nonetheless said that Trump “bears responsibility” for the “attack on Congress by mob rioters” and “should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.” McCarthy also said that the facts about Jan. 6 “require immediate action of President Trump to [a]ccept his share of responsibility, quell the unrest, and ensure President-Elect Biden is able to successfully begin his term.”