Pelosi Correctly Bars Trump Loyalists From Jan. 6 Inquiry Committee

After traveling to Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey to engage in political fellatio of Donald Trump. a/k/a Der Trumpenfuhrer, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy - who is clearly the face of shameless political prostitutes - named five House Republicans to the House select committee to investigate the January 6, 2021, insurrection and assault on the U.S. Capitol.  Two, Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio, have been ardent Trump supporters and by their statements and actions before, during and after the January 6, 2021, insurrection clearly have an agenda of sabotaging the commission hearings and may well yet be found to have ties to the insurrectionists.  Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the two which caused McCarthy to throw a lie-filled temper tantrum and say that no Republicans would participate.  McCarthy's statement deliberately overlooked Liz Cheney - already appointed by Pelosi - who not only will participate but also had some very strong words for McCarthy's disingenuous and obstructionist conduct (her comments can be found here).  The sad reality is that McCarthy and Republicans prostituting themselves to Trump do NOT want a fair and full investigation because such an investigation would likely (i) confirm that Trump incited the insurrection, and (ii) identify other Republicans who collaborated in the attack on the Capitol. These individuals simply do not want the American public to know the truth because it would damage both Trump and others within the GOP who aided and abetted sedition.  A piece in the New York Times looks at McCarthy's disingenuous theatrics.  Here are excerpts:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved on Wednesday to bar two of former President Donald J. Trump’s most vociferous Republican defenders in Congress from joining a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, saying their conduct suggested they could not be trusted to participate.

In an unusual move, Ms. Pelosi announced that she was rejecting Representatives Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio, both of whom amplified Mr. Trump’s false claims of election fraud, joined their party’s efforts to challenge President Biden’s victory on Jan. 6 and have opposed efforts to investigate the assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters. She agreed to seat the other three Republicans who had been chosen for the panel.

But Ms. Pelosi said she could not allow the pair to take part, based on their actions around the riot and comments they had made undercutting the investigation. Mr. Banks, who has equated the deadly attack to unrest during the racial justice protests last summer, said the Jan. 6 inquiry was created to “malign conservatives and to justify the left’s authoritarian agenda.” Mr. Jordan, one of the biggest cheerleaders of Mr. Trump’s attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the 2020 election, pressed Mr. Trump’s false claims of election fraud on the House floor as protesters breached the Capitol, and has called the select committee “impeachment Round 3.”

The speaker’s decision drew an angry response from Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, who announced that Republicans would boycott the panel altogether.

Many Democrats no longer wish to work with or hear from Republicans who helped spread Mr. Trump’s lie of a stolen election, especially those who led the effort and have sought to downplay the severity and significance of the assault that it inspired. Some said allowing two of the most prominent defenders to serve on a panel examining the attack was akin to allowing criminals to investigate their own crimes.

In a statement, Ms. Pelosi said she had rejected Mr. Banks and Mr. Jordan “with respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these members.”  “The unprecedented nature of Jan. 6 demands this unprecedented decision,” she added.

Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Banks and Mr. Jordan — appearing with the three other Republicans chosen to sit on the panel — sought to divert blame for the riot from Mr. Trump and their own political supporters who carried it out, instead faulting Democrats who they said had not adequately planned for the onslaught.

Democrats received high-profile backing from Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Mr. McCarthy’s former No. 3 whom Ms. Pelosi appointed to the committee after she was ousted from her leadership position in May for criticizing Mr. Trump.

“The rhetoric that we have heard from the minority leader is disingenuous,” Ms. Cheney told reporters on the steps of the Capitol. “At every opportunity, the minority leader has attempted to prevent the American people from understanding what happened, to block this investigation.”

She said Ms. Pelosi had been right to bar Mr. Jordan and Mr. Banks from the panel, saying that Mr. Jordan was a potential “material witness” and Mr. Banks had “disqualified himself” with recent comments disparaging the committee’s work.

At the time of the attack, the House sergeant-at-arms, Paul D. Irving, had been on the job since 2012, when he was hired under Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio. The Senate sergeant-at-arms at the time, Michael Stenger, was hired in 2018 when Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, led the chamber.

Ms. Cheney reportedly clashed with Mr. Jordan on the House floor on Jan. 6, blaming him for the riot, according to a new book by two reporters for The Washington Post.

Ms. Pelosi had said she would accept Mr. McCarthy’s three other nominees to the panel — Representative Rodney Davis of Illinois, Representative Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota and Representative Troy Nehls of Texas — and said she encouraged Mr. McCarthy to offer two new picks to replace Mr. Jordan and Mr. Banks. But following Mr. McCarthy’s lead, those three also said they would not participate.

McCarthy knows full well that Trump is guilty of inciting the insurrection and that a number of other Congressional Republicans likely aided and abetted the insurrectionists, some having given tours of the Capitol and laying out the floor plan just days prior to the assault.  Expect him to do anything he can to divert Americans from the real truth of what happened. Sadly, the GOP is now the party of sedition and treason.