House Democrats and Republicans Friday morning announced an agreement has been reached “to introduce legislation to form a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the January 6 domestic terrorism attack on the United States Capitol.” Many have doubted the commission would be formed after Republicans worked to derail progress. Now, House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy may do just that.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the Committee on Homeland Security’s agreement, saying, “It is imperative that we seek the truth of what happened on January 6 with an independent, bipartisan 9/11-type Commission to examine and report upon the terrorist mob attack.”
But as CNN’s Annie Grayer reports, “Kevin McCarthy tells reporters he has not read through the deal that John Katko made with Dems on 1/6 commission and said that the scope should not just be focused on 1/6 even though that’s what the deal says.”
Republicans have been trying to include the Black Lives Matter protests in the investigation, even though they have nothing to do with the attempted coup and attack on the Capitol.
When asked about McCarthy’s roadblocking, Speaker Pelosi told Grayer, “You know what, why don’t you ask him?”
“His ranking member is a cosponsor of the legislation,” Pelosi noted. “We’re very pleased that it is bipartisan, and the scope was very important in the legislation.”
Bloomberg adds that McCarthy “was noncommittal when asked if he supports the commission legislation.”
“I have to go through it,” he said, pointing to “rhetoric” in the bill about the scope of the investigation “that I want to look through.”
Some claim McCarthy’s attempts to block the Commission stem from what GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger revealed earleir this week, that on Jan. 3 he warned McCarthy Republicans’ rhetoric and actions were going to lead to violence, but McCarthy dismissed him.