House rejects GOP effort to seat McCarthy’s picks for Jan. 6 panel

The House on Monday defeated an effort by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to seat his preferred members for the select committee dedicated to investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The mostly party-line vote of 218-197 comes a day before the panel’s first hearing with four police officers who will testify about their experiences defending the Capitol from the violent mob of former President Trump’s supporters.

McCarthy is protesting Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) refusal to seat two of the Republicans he named to the panel — Reps. Jim Banks (Ind.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) — over their attempts to cast doubt on the last year’s election results and the Jan. 6 investigation as well as their particularly close ties to Trump.

The two-page resolution offered by McCarthy formally “condemns the refusal” of Pelosi to seat all five of his chosen members to the select committee and urges her to do so.

“Speaker Pelosi’s refusal to seat all five Republican members directly harms the legitimacy, credibility and integrity of the proceedings of the select committee,” the resolution states.

Pelosi did not object to seating McCarthy’s three other selected Republicans: Reps. Rodney Davis (Ill.), Kelly Armstrong (N.D.) and Troy Nehls (Texas). Davis, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, and Armstrong both voted to certify President Biden’s election victory, while Nehls helped Capitol Police stop the mob from breaking into the House chamber.

But when Pelosi rejected Jordan and Banks, McCarthy opted to boycott participation in the select committee altogether.

Pelosi has tapped two Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the insurrection and have been critical of their party’s continued embrace of the former president: Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.).

Both Cheney and Kinzinger voted with Democrats to table McCarthy’s resolution.

“Leader McCarthy’s antics show just how desperate House Republicans are to do something, anything to distract from the powerful and patriotic testimony of the law enforcement heroes of January 6th before the bipartisan select committee tomorrow,” Pelosi’s office said in a statement.

The Speaker included Cheney among her original eight picks for the select committee. The resolution that established the select committee states that five of the 13 members “shall be appointed after consultation with the minority leader,” but Pelosi ultimately has the final say over who can serve. 

Pelosi defended her decision during a Sunday interview with ABC’s “This Week,” arguing that Banks and Jordan would “jeopardize the integrity of the investigation.”

“And there’s no way I would tolerate their antics as we seek the truth,” she said.

She announced Sunday that Kinzinger would fill one of the vacancies left by McCarthy’s boycott.

Banks, meanwhile, accused Pelosi of being responsible for the “breakdown of security” on Jan. 6. Capitol security officials briefed congressional leadership — which included Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), then the Senate majority leader — ahead of that day about security preparations.

“So she doesn’t want us to ask these questions because, at the end of the day, she is ultimately responsible for the breakdown of security at the Capitol that happened on Jan. 6,” Banks said.

McCarthy’s resolution on Monday does not go as far as a push by the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who pressed McCarthy on Friday to force a vote to oust Pelosi from the Speaker’s chair altogether for blocking Jordan and Banks from serving on the select committee.

“We, the House Freedom Caucus, respectfully request that you … bring up a privileged motion by July 31, 2021 to vacate the chair and Nancy Pelosi’s authoritarian reign as Speaker of the House,” the Freedom Caucus wrote to McCarthy in a letter.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the Freedom Caucus chairman, told The Hill that Monday’s vote does not satisfy his request to McCarthy.

Biggs said that “I’d rather vacate the chair” instead of merely condemning Pelosi.

—Scott Wong contributed. Updated at 7:16 p.m.