Home Approves Committee To Probe January 6 U.S. Capitol Revolt On Occasion Line Vote – CBS San Francisco

WASHINGTON (AP) – Split by party lines, the House opened a new investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol Rising on Wednesday and approved a special committee to investigate the violent attack as police officers fight supporters of former President Donald Trump were injured, were observed from the side gallery above.

The vote to form the panel was 222-190, with Republicans protesting that the majority of Democrats would be in charge. The lawsuit came after the Senate Republicans blocked the creation of an independent commission that would have been divided equally between the two parties.

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House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi stressed the importance Democrats attach to voting and told MPs in the Chamber, “We will be judged by future generations by how we value our democracy.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, responded to a question about her establishment of a special committee to investigate the January 6th insurrection in the Capitol during a press conference during a press conference to discuss a land transport law at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 30, 2021. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)

Wyoming MP Liz Cheney, who lost her position in the GOP leadership because of her criticism of Trump, was one of only two Republicans to vote for the panel. She stated, “Our nation and the families of the brave law enforcement officers who were injured in defending us or died after being attacked deserve answers.”

But Ohio Republican Brad Wenstrup dismissed the new investigation as “incomplete and inadequate” because it would fail to investigate other incidents, including the 2017 baseball field shooting in which Louisiana GOP Rep. Steve Scalise was seriously injured.

Pelosi said she preferred an independent body to lead the investigation, but Congress could not wait any longer to begin a deeper look at the insurrection that was the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years.

Tensions in Congress have increased since the siege by Trump’s supporters to prevent Congress confirming Trump’s loss to Democrat Joe Biden. A brief sense of common outrage has given way to partisan politics and attempts by some Republicans to downplay the day’s events. Most Republicans have made it clear that they want to leave the uprising – and Trump’s role – behind, even though many of them fled the violent mob themselves.

Democrats expressed frustration with Republicans who complained that the investigation was biased after their party blocked the bipartisan body.

“I think for some on the other hand, nothing that comes to the truth will ever be good enough because they don’t want the truth,” said Jim McGovern, chairman of the rules committee who chaired the pre-vote debate.

The panel would be led by Democrats, with Pelosi appointing a chairman and at least eight of the committee’s 13 members. The resolution gives her a possible say in the appointment of the other five members and states that they will be nominated “in consultation” with the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.

GOP leaders have declined to say whether Republicans will attend at all. In a memo to all House Republicans late Tuesday, House Republican Scalise urged its members to vote against the resolution, saying the committee would “likely have a partisan agenda.”

The GOP’s role in the investigation and appointment to the panel could help determine whether the committee becomes a bipartisan effort or an instrument for further division. Two Senate committees issued a bipartisan report with safety recommendations earlier this month, but it failed to investigate the origins of the siege and left many questions about the day’s events unanswered.

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McCarthy is under pressure to take the investigation seriously from police officers who responded to the attack, several of whom were in the stands watching the debate. Dozens of officials were injured that day as Trump’s supporters pushed past them and broke into the building to interrupt Certification President Biden’s victory.

The audience included Metropolitan Police Officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn. Fanone has described how he was dragged down the Capitol steps by rioters who shocked him with a stun gun and beat him. Hodges was crushed between two doors. And Dunn has said that rioters shouted racial slurs and fought him in some sort of hand-to-hand combat when he was holding them back.

Also at the gallery were Gladys Sicknick and Sandra Garza, the mother and partner of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who collapsed and later died after engaging with the protesters. He was sprayed with chemical irritants, but a coroner determined that he died of natural causes.

Fanone and Dunn met up with McCarthy on Friday. Fanone said he asked McCarthy for a pledge not to put “the wrong people” on the panel, a reference to those in the GOP who downplayed the violence and defended the insurgents. He said McCarthy told him he would take his request seriously.

Trump was indicted twice by the House of Representatives and acquitted twice by the Senate, the second time for telling his supporters to “fight like hell” to undo his defeat to Biden just before the uprising.

Pelosi has yet to say who will head the panel, but one option is with House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. Thompson said Tuesday that it would be an honor to serve as chairperson and that it would be Pelosi’s phone call if she wanted a say in Republican membership.

“You had an opportunity to really get involved,” Thompson said of the Republicans who voted against the bipartisan commission. “And they didn’t. So you can’t come back now and say, ‘Oh, that’s not fair.’ “

Many Republicans have raised concerns about a partisan investigation, as the majority of Democrats are likely to investigate Trump’s role in the siege and the groups involved in it. Nearly three dozen Republicans in the House of Representatives voted in favor of the Independent Commission bill last month, and seven Republicans in the Senate also voted to move that bill forward. But that was close to the 10 Senate Republicans it would take to get it passed.

Many Republicans have made it clear that they want to move on after the January 6 attack. And some went further, including Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, who suggested that the rioters’ video looked like a “tourist visit.” Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar insisted that a Trump supporter named Ashli ​​Babbitt, who was shot that day while attempting to break into the House of Representatives, be “executed”. Others have defended rioters charged with federal crimes.

Seven people died during and after the riots, including Babbitt and three other Trump supporters who suffered medical emergencies. Two police officers died of suicide in the days that followed, and a third police officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and later died after dealing with the protesters. A coroner determined that he died of natural causes.

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