House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy Makes Picks for Jan. 6 Panel
By: WSJ
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
July 19, 2021 9:14 pm ET
WASHINGTON—House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) chose five Republican lawmakers to serve on the Democrat-led select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, ahead of the panel's first hearing later this month.
Mr. McCarthy tapped Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), chair of the Republican Study Committee, a group of the most conservative House Republicans, to serve as the select committee's top-ranking GOP member.
His other appointees are moderate Rep. Rodney Davis (R., Ill.), the top Republican on the Committee on House Administration; Reps. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) and Kelly Armstrong (R., N.D.), both of whom served on the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump; and Rep. Troy Nehls (R., Texas), a former sheriff and freshman lawmaker who helped barricade the House floor against rioters on Jan. 6.
The House voted largely along party lines late last month to establish the select committee to investigate the events of Jan. 6, when Mr. Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol building and temporarily interrupted the ratification of Joe Biden's electoral-college victory. Senate Republicans blocked an effort earlier this year to set up a bipartisan, independent commission, saying Democrats would weaponize it against Republican candidates in 2022.
In all, 13 members of Congress will serve on the select committee, with eight chosen directly by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and another five after consultation with Mr. McCarthy. Mrs. Pelosi didn't comment on Mr. McCarthy's picks on Monday. The resolution the House passed to create the select committee gives her the power to reject them.
Mr. McCarthy had faced a practical deadline to make his recommendations: The panel’s first hearing, featuring Capitol Police and other law-enforcement officials as witnesses, is scheduled for the morning of July 27.
Structured similarly to the GOP-led select committee on the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, the Jan. 6 select committee’s mandate is to find out what led to the attack, as well as to examine the preparedness and response of Capitol Police and other law-enforcement agencies. There is to be a report and recommendations, but no set deadline to produce them.
Mr. McCarthy said he deliberately chose a mix of members: Messrs. Banks, Jordan and Nehls voted to overturn Arizona and Pennsylvania’s electoral results on Jan. 6, while Messrs. Davis and Armstrong voted to certify Mr. Biden’s win in those states. None of them voted to impeach Mr. Trump, however.
“You’ve got a mix from the entire conference, right? So people who objected and who didn’t object” to the electoral-college results, Mr. McCarthy said. “The mission is to make the facts, to never put the Capitol Police, or this Capitol, in this position again.”
Mr. McCarthy, who met with Mr. Trump last week, added: “I didn’t talk to Donald Trump about this.”
Messrs. Jordan and Banks said Monday night that they view the committee as a partisan exercise.
“We know what this committee is about, it’s about impeaching President Trump a third time,” Mr. Jordan told reporters as he headed into Mr. McCarthy’s office Monday night.
“Make no mistake, Nancy Pelosi created this committee solely to malign conservatives,” Mr. Banks said in a statement. Still, he said, “I will do everything possible to give the American people the facts about the lead up to Jan. 6, the riot that day, and the responses from Capitol leadership and the Biden administration.”
The House resolution that created the committee passed 222-190, with only two Republicans voting with Democrats in favor. House GOP leadership had dismissed the committee as a partisan exercise. Mr. McCarthy also had opposed an earlier bill that would have established the outside commission.
Mrs. Pelosi already has appointed eight of the committee’s members, including the chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.). Other Democrats on the committee are Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Adam Schiff and Pete Aguilar of California, Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Elaine Luria of Virginia.
One of Mrs. Pelosi’s picks was a Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. Ms. Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump for inciting insurrection against the U.S. government on Jan. 6, and one of the two Republicans who voted to create the select committee.
The Senate acquitted Mr. Trump in February, but Ms. Cheney’s continued outspoken criticism of Mr. Trump led to her ouster in May from the House Republican leadership team. Mr. McCarthy complained that she had become a distraction from Republicans’ goal of winning the House majority next year.
After her appointment to the select committee, Ms. Cheney told CNN it is important to have members “who are committed to upholding the rule of law” and to their oaths to the Constitution.
—Kristina Peterson and Eliza Collins contributed to this article
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