House GOP leaders won’t support probe of Jan. 6 Capitol riot

By MARY CLARE JALONICK
June 29, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican leaders say they will oppose the creation of a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol — and have so far declined to say whether they will even participate in the probe.

In a memo to all House Republicans late Tuesday, No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise said the House panel “is likely to pursue a partisan agenda” in investigating the violent attack by former President Donald Trump’s supporters, and he encouraged Republicans to vote against it. A vote on a resolution that would create the panel is scheduled for Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Scalise declined to say whether members of his party would even agree to sit on the committee, telling reporters at a news conference that “I can’t answer that question.” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy also declined to say whether Republicans would participate.

The Republican opposition comes as McCarthy is facing pressure to take the investigation seriously from police officers who responded to the attack, Democrats and even some of his fellow Republicans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has invited representatives of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia and the U.S. Capitol Police to sit in the gallery and watch Wednesday’s vote, according to a person familiar with the plan who wasn’t authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity. Dozens of those officers were brutally beaten and suffered injuries as Trump’s supporters pushed past them and broke into the building to interrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

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