Top House Republican Opposes Bipartisan Commission To Investigate Capitol Riot
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who directed the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee to negotiate the structure of the commission, now says he will vote against the deal.
www.npr.org
McCarthy tasked the top-ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. John Katko of New York, to broker a deal on the commission, and the GOP leader's opposition undercuts his own member's agreement with Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and gives cover to other House Republicans to vote against it.
McCarthy's position is unlikely to prevent the plan's approval in the House, but its future in the Senate, which is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, is less certain. Democrats would need at least 10 GOP votes in the Senate for the commission to come into being. At issue is the panel's task: investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Many Republican lawmakers are loath to anger former President Donald Trump, whose supporters carried out the attack and who himself continues to claim baselessly that the election was stolen.
To explain his opposition, McCarthy, a California Republican, pointed to other bipartisan efforts in the Senate to probe the riot, a security review underway by a top House official, and the Justice Department's arrests of hundreds who breached the Capitol that day. He said the fact that the commission also isn't designed to study other instances of political violence was a problem for him.
