‘You Stood in the Way of a Bipartisan Commission’: McCarthy Grilled After Yanking Republicans From 1/6 Committee
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) faced a deluge of questions during the press conference in which he announced he is pulling his appointees from January 6 House Select Committee.
On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she would veto Congressmen Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN) from the committee. Both men are vocal supporters Donald Trump, both have amplified the former president’s unsubstantiated claims about the 2020 election, and Pelosi said their involvement with the committee would risk the integrity of its attempt to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
McCarthy and his cohorts retaliated with an angry press conference in which he railed against what he deemed to be a power grab on the Speaker’s part, and said he would revoke his three other picks for the committee unless Pelosi seats all five of them. When the presser opened up for questions, a reporter challenged McCarthy’s claim that the committee is a partisan exercise by noting that he came out against a bipartisan agreement for Jan. 6 investigative commission months ago.
“You’re complaining that you don’t have a bipartisan opportunity here to investigate January 6th, but you stood in the way of a bipartisan commission made up of independent members…” the reporter said.
“No, I didn’t,” McCarthy interjected as the reporter continued.
“Your conference voted against that — at least a majority of your conference voted against it — and it was blocked in the Senate. Why did you not allow that to go forward if what you say you want is a bipartisan investigation into what happened on January 6th?”
“For the same politics Pelosi played then,” McCarthy answered. He complained that the proposed commission would not have been granted the scope to investigate Capitol security with regards to the death of Billy Evans, the officer who was killed months after January 6th.
Why would she make a scope that you couldn’t get the answers to? Why would an officer’s life not matter to her? That’s why people objected. People asked for it before. She played six months with this. Why she played her games and continued to do so, the Senate acted. Two committees. The report is done.
McCarthy further denounced the “sham” investigation — accusing Pelosi of playing politics, and insinuating it was her fault that the Capitol wasn’t protected by the National Guard the day Trump’s supporters attacked it.
Watch above, via MSNBC.
