7/22/21 House GOP Leader McCarthy Withdraws All His Picks for 1/6 Select Committee

Kevin McCarthy has snatched back the nominations of the five congressmen he proposed for the House Select Committee that will investigate the insurrection attempt of January 6. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, had set aside 5 seats so the GOP House leader could name Republicans to serve on a potentially bipartisan panel.

So far, there was just one Republican on the committee -- Liz Cheney, the Republican who gave up her leadership position in the House GOP rather than join the crowd cheering for Donald Trump and his Big Lie of a stolen election.

At first, McCarthy (R-Calif.) wouldn't bite at Pelosi's offer. After several days, though, he did come up with 5 names. Two of them were Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who have been among the most outspoken Trump advocates in the House, with Jordan in particular stating his determination to investigate irrelevant incidences of left-wing protests in other cities. Bringing up left-wing protests has been a consistent Republican response to every attempt to form a serious investigation.

Pelosi refused to seat Jordan and Banks, saying they threatened "the integrity of the investigation"-- as well they did. She offered to accept two other suggestions from McCarthy in their places.

Pelosi was willing to accept the other three, Reps. Rodney Davis (Ill.), Kelly Armstrong (N.D.) and Troy Nehls (Texas).

(We wouldn't be so happy about Nehls. He defeated WRP member Sri Kulkarni for the TX-22 congressional seat after a campaign in which Nehls granted NO interviews and held NO public events, and simply let an extreme partisan gerrymander do the work for him. But we digress.)

McCarthy wasn't having it. Take them all, or take none, he told Pelosi.

This was no tantrum. All along, McCarthy and the GOP have resisted being part of any investigation involving de facto GOP leader Donald Trump. Here, McCarthy achieved his objective of standing aside at a safe enough distance to toss barbs at the committee doing the work.

Recently, former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor called the GOP -- "my party" -- "the No. 1 security national security threat to the United States of America.” With bobbing and weaving like McCarthy's, the statement makes all kinds of sense.

_________

What can Nancy Pelosi do to buttress the legitimacy of the 1/6 Select Committee? Given, of course, that it IS legitimate, but some Republicans are clearly planning to portray the investigation as partisan. Is there any way to work against the Republicans' plan to undercut the Committee?

If McCarthy fails to come up with names that Pelosi can accept, should she simply invite five honest conservatives to accept seats?

Do you think that the Committee will subpoena GOP leaders, including Donald Trump?

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/564138-mccarthy-yanks-all-gop-picks-from-jan-6-committee