Pelosi Announces She's Creating a Select Committee to Investigate January 6
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday the creation of a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion.
Pelosi had reportedly announced to the House Steering and Policy Committee Tuesday that she would launch the committee. The House speaker later denied the reports, claiming, “No, I did not make that announcement. Somebody put out a false report,” according to CNN.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, meanwhile, tweeted, “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.”
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
Now, Pelosi appears ready to move forward with the committee.
“It is imperative that we establish the truth of that day, and ensure that an attack of that kind cannot happen and that we root out the causes of it all. The select committee will investigate and report on the facts and the causes of the attack and it will make report recommendations for the prevention of any future attack,” she said Thursday during her weekly news conference.
CBS News reported, “Unlike an independent commission that would not have comprised elected officials, Democrats will control the select committee.”
It added, “There will still be Republican members on the committee, but Democrats will have the majority and therefore, they will also have subpoena power. Select committees are created by a resolution to conduct investigations or consider measures, usually on a specific topic.”
The plan to launch the select committee follows a failed effort to pass legislation in the Senate to formally launch a committee similar to the one created following 9/11.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said in May that he and others were concerned that despite claims of bipartisanship, the commission might be “a political weapon in the hands of the Democrats,” according to The New York Times.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has said that the various investigations already underway should finish before Democrats start another one.
“It’s not at all clear what new facts or additional investigation yet another commission could actually lay on top of existing efforts by law enforcement and Congress,” McConnell said last month, according to The Washington Post.
“The facts have come out, they’ll continue to come out,” he said in rejecting the House proposal for a commission.
“What is clear is that House Democrats have handled this proposal in partisan bad faith going right back to the beginning, from initially offering a laughably partisan starting point to continuing to insist on various other features under the hood that are designed to centralize control over the commission’s process and its conclusions in Democratic hands.”
Pelosi and House Democrats also led an effort after Jan. 6 to impeach former President Donald Trump. They claimed he incited the violence that took place at the U.S. Capitol Building.
The effort continued despite Trump leaving office, and the House passed one article of impeachment.
The article passed largely along party lines. However, 10 Republican House members voted alongside Democrats.
The Senate then failed to convict Trump in February. All Senate Democrats voted to convict, along with seven Republicans.
Pelosi’s latest efforts will seek to further investigate the events of Jan. 6. However, conservatives have largely viewed this as a partisan measure.
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