Pelosi Lauds 'Courage' of 35 House Republicans Who Voted for Jan. 6 Commission

Pelosi commended the "courage" of the 35 House GOP members who broke ranks with party leaders to vote in favor of a Capitol riot commission.

“Many Republicans have courageously withstood the assault on our country,” she said.

The Democratic-controlled House passed legislation to create an independent bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, with 35 Republicans breaking ranks with their leaders to support the probe.

The 252-175 vote sends the bill to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell earlier Wednesday announced his opposition. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to bring it to a vote, but he would need at least 10 GOP senators to go along.

The commission legislation was the result of a compromise worked by Homeland Security Chair Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and the panel’s top Republican, John Katko of New York, and designed to address GOP objections to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s original plan. But it turned into another test of Republican loyalty to former President Donald Trump, whose supporters attacked the Capitol while Congress was certifying the Electoral College votes that made Joe Biden president.

Trump released a statement Tuesday night calling the commission plan a “Democrat trap” and urging McConnell and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to heed his warnings.

McCarthy had already announced his opposition, saying any investigation should also include looking at “political violence” by the left. Both he and McConnell had laid blame on Trump in the immediate aftermath of the riot. But McCarthy has since backtracked and aligned himself more closely with the former president. McConnell has sought to avoid discussing Trump and on Wednesday said there already are overlapping investigations of Jan. 6.

Other Investigations

“It’s not at all clear what new facts or additional investigation yet another commission could lay on top of the existing efforts by law enforcement and Congress. The facts have come out and will continue to come out,” McConnell said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “What is clear is that House Democrats have handled this proposal in partisan bad faith from the beginning.”

Other GOP critics of the commission legislation were more direct.

“This commission isn’t about justice, oversight or fact-finding; it’s about Democrats’ desperate need to keep prosecuting a former president and his supporters because their current agenda is failing the American people and destroying this country in real time,” Texas Republican Representative Chip Roy said in a statement.

Some Republicans, such as Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, said the investigation should include “events like the 2017 domestic terrorist attack that targeted Republican members of Congress at a baseball practice,” and “the wave of violence, rioting, and property destruction that swept across the country last summer.”

Democrats seized on the opposition to highlight the GOP’s alignment with Trump and his false claims about the 2020 election.

“Once again, they are caving to Donald Trump and proving that the Republican Party is still drunk off the big lie,” Schumer said.

Massachusetts Democratic Representative Jim McGovern said on the House floor before the vote that Republicans are “afraid because their leadership doesn’t want to offend the ex-president and his big lie.”

The legislation would establish a 10-member commission appointed equally by Democrats and Republicans and drawn from outside Congress or government. The commission will be able to issue subpoenas, but those will require agreement between the chair and the vice chair or a vote by a majority of commission members.

It directs the commission to deliver its findings and recommendations by Dec. 31. That increases the odds it would resonate into 2022, when midterm elections will determine which party controls the narrowly divided House and Senate.