Republicans who voted to overturn election could be denied spots on riot committee

Republican lawmakers who voted to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory could be blocked from a forthcoming House committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN Tuesday night that she has veto power over who Republicans want to appoint.

“We’ll see who they nominate,” Pelosi said to CNN’s Manu Raju, adding that she has not decided whether she’ll allow any of the more than 130 House Republicans who voted to block certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory to serve on the committee.

The House is set to vote Wednesday on the creation of the select committee. Democrats are pursuing this avenue to investigate the violent and deadly riot at the Capitol after Senate Republicans blocked the creation of an independent and bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection’s origins and how to prevent similar attacks in the future.

Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday that Republicans were given everything they were asked for in the bipartisan commission, yet they rejected that deal and forced Democrats’ hands in the creation of the select committee.

Republicans are expected to vote en masse against the committee. They accused Pelosi of creating an overly partisan committee, as Democrats would have eight members on it and Republicans five.

The makeup is similar to a select committee Republicans created to investigate a 2012 terrorist attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which included 7 Republicans and 5 Democrats.

Republicans infamously spent years and millions of dollars on the probe, which McCarthy later admitted was a political endeavor to damage Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The probe never uncovered any wrongdoing.

As for the special committee on the insurrection, McCarthy has yet to say who he would appoint.

However, Donald Trump-supporting Republicans who voted to overturn Biden’s victory — including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) — have said they want to be on the committee.

“We probably can expect that Donald Trump over the next few days will issue recommendations as to who he thinks should be on this committee,” Jeffries said in an interview with MSNBC last week. “And Kevin McCarthy will follow those recommendations, hook, line and sinker. But that’s not going to stop us from uncovering the truth and then presenting it in a clear, convincing and comprehensive way to the American people.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.