Pelosi Picks Another Republican For January 6 Select Committee; McCarthy Responds

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has appointed Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a six-term member of Congress and frequent critic of former President Donald Trump, to serve on the select committee investigating the January 6 riot at the Capitol building.

Pelosi’s decision to appoint Kinzinger, one of nine other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection, comes after she rejected two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) five picks for the select committee — and after McCarthy pulled his three other picks from the list in response to the speaker’s decision.

As such, Kinzinger will only be joining one other Republican lawmaker: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the former House Republican conference chair.

In a statement, Kinzinger reiterated his belief that the American public deserves “transparency and truth” to determine how and why people showed up to the Capitol building to “attack our democracy,” and to determine what “led to the insurrection.”

“Let me be clear, I’m a Republican dedicated to conservative values, but I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution — and while this is not the position I expected to be in or sought out, when duty calls, I will always answer,” said Kinzinger.

Today, I was asked to serve on the bipartisan January 6th Select Committee and I humbly accepted. When duty calls, I will always answer. https://t.co/MszEBc0V7I pic.twitter.com/flIdSfYzZV

— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) July 25, 2021

On Sunday, McCarthy accused Pelosi of stacking the select committee with people who “share her pre-conceived narrative.”

“The Speaker has structured this select committee to satisfy her political objectives. She had months to work with Republicans on a reasonable and fair approach to get answers on the events and security failures surrounding January 6,” said McCarthy. “Instead, she has played politics. Lost in much of the news coverage is the fact that the Senate has already conducted bipartisan investigations that should serve as a roadmap for the House.”

“Speaker Pelosi’s departure from this serious-minded approach has destroyed the select committee’s credibility. The U.S. Capitol and the men and women who protect it suffered a massive leadership failure. We must make sure that never happens again and that is what Republicans will be focused on,” added McCarthy.

Kinzinger and Cheney will be joined by a group of Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), each of whom served as impeachment managers in Trump’s Senate trials. The other members of the select committee are Reps. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), Elaine Luria (D-VA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Pete Aguilar (D-CA), and the select committee’s chairman, Bennie Thompson (D-MS).

Thompson, who is also chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has declined to establish a timeline for how long he believes the select committee will investigate.

“We’ll let the facts help determine how long we will need, but I assure you that the product will be a product based on investigations, based on what those investigations bring forward,” said Thompson, as RollCall reported when the select committee membership was announced. “There’s nothing sacrosanct in this review that won’t be brought out.”

The select committee will hold its first hearing Tuesday with several Capitol and metropolitan police officers.

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