Jules Witcover

WASHINGTON — Democratic plans to launch a bipartisan investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection were disrupted this week by Republican maneuvers to sabotage it.

The impasse resulted from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s decision to nominate two Republican representatives to the inquiry who have openly opposed it and who earlier voted against the impeachment of former President Donald Trump, amplifying Trump’s lie that the election had been stolen. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to accept them to the select committee.

Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana, the representatives Pelosi rejected, have denied that they opposed to the quest for the origins of the massive attack on Capitol Hill, insisting they wanted to know why the House had not been adequately protected with Pelosi in charge on that day.

The Republican gambit is a transparent strategy to shift the investigation from the roles Trump and other Republicans in the administration and in Congress may have played in planning and instigating the attack. Trump openly called in a speech outside the White House on that morning for protesters to march on the Capitol and promised to join them.

He urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject congressional certification of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as the winner of the November 2020 election as achieved by a popular vote margin of 7 million ballots and a majority in the Electoral College.

At the time, Pence was inside the Capitol complex with family members, and they had to be herded to a secure location as mobs sought him out, threatening physical abuse. Marchers meanwhile flooded and overwhelmed police guarding the legislative branch, as Trump took cover in the Oval Office and watched on television.

On Wednesday, Pelosi defended her rejection of Jordan and Banks, saying: “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, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee.”

She acknowledged her actions were “unprecedented” but said they were necessary because “the unprecedented nature of January 6” demanded it.

McCarthy responded by withdrawing all five Republican names he had offered and declaring he would launch his own investigation into the Jan. 6 events. Pelosi already had named Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming — whose vocal criticism of Trump recently led Republicans to depose her from party leadership — to serve on her select committee. As a result, Pelosi said: “We have a bipartisan quorum. We can proceed.”

In return, McCarthy replied of Pelosi, who is expected to retire as speaker after her current term: “House Democrats must answer this question: Why are you allowing a lame-duck speaker to destroy this institution? This the people’s house, not Pelosi’s House.”

Meanwhile, at a Cincinnati town hall forum on the COVID-19 pandemic, President Biden injected this comment on the Jan. 6 dispute: “The fact is, you can’t look at that television and say nothing happened on the 6th. You can’t listen to people who say this was a peaceful march.”

That may be one of the stories Republicans hope to promote going forward as they attack the credibility of House leadership’s quest to find the origins of another day that will live in infamy.

Jules Witcover’s latest book is “The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power,” published by Smithsonian Books. You can respond to this column at juleswitcovercomcast.net.

Newsletter