Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the House will form a select committee to investigate the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol after the creation of an independent commission failed in the Senate.
“This morning with great solemnity and sadness, I’m announcing that the House will be establishing a select committee on the January 6 insurrection,” Pelosi said during a press conference Thursday morning.
“Again, January 6 was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history. I’ve said it now three times. It is imperative now that we establish the truth of that day and ensure that an attack of that kind cannot happen and that we root out the causes of it all,” she continued. “The select committee will investigate and report on the facts and the causes of the attack and it will report recommendations for the prevention of any future attacks.”
The January 6 commission will investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol that sought to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden as then-President-elect.
Pelosi went on to reference the 9-11 commission that was established after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, saying like that commission, she hopes the January 6 commission is “complementary” to other investigations.
After CNN first reported on Tuesday that Pelosi would be moving forward with forming the committee, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he expected the action to be political.
“I’m sure it will be political because that’s the whole way that she’s handled it,” McCarthy said Wednesday following the report.
Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain echoed McCarthy, writing on Twitter that Pelosi’s announcement “is all politics.”
“Instead of working with Republicans to actually make a bipartisan commission, @SpeakerPelosi is now creating a select committee to investigate January 6th. Let me tell you straight, this isn’t about getting answers, this is all politics,” she tweeted.
Pelosi did not name the committee’s chairman, noting that announcement would come at a different time.
The speaker said it would have been “preferable” to have an independent commission, dismissing allegations that the move is political. “I don’t worry about that at all,” Pelosi said. “I have no intention of walking away from our responsibility.”
In May, the House voted to establish a commission, approved with a vote of 252-175, including all House Democrats and 35 Republicans. The commission was later blocked by the GOP in the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., opposed the commission, calling it “slanted and unbalanced.”
