Kevin McCarthy has just announced this morning that he will not be supporting a bipartisan commission probing the Capitol riot:
THE HILL – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday said he will not support bipartisan legislation for the 9/11-style commission to probe the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“Given the political misdirections that have marred this process, given the now duplicative and potentially counterproductive nature of this effort, and given the Speaker’s shortsighted scope that does not examine interrelated forms of political violence in America, I cannot support this legislation,” McCarthy said in a statement released Tuesday morning.
This statement comes after the top Democrat and Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee reached an agreement last week on legislation to create the commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack that resulted in the deaths of several people, including a Capitol Police officer.
McCarthy said he could not support the legislation because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “refused to negotiate in good faith” on the parameters of the commission and because Democrats’ “renewed focus” does not include the “political violence” in American cities, the 2017 shooting at a Republican congressional baseball practice or the fatal attack on Capitol Police on April 2.
“The presence of this political violence in American society cannot be tolerated and it cannot be overlooked,” McCarthy wrote.
“I have communicated this to our Democrat colleagues for months and its omission is deeply concerning,” he added.
Democrats want to pretend that the Capitol riot was some kind of terrorist attack on America or something like 9/11. It wasn’t anything even close to that. Nancy Pelosi called it an armed insurrection. It certainly wasn’t armed and it wasn’t an insurrection. It was an idiotic riot by protesters who were angry about the election. I’ve said from the beginning that it was wrong and the people participating should be punished.
But Democrats are clearly trying to make it more than it was because they want to stop Republicans from winning in 2024. They want to demonize it simply for election purposes, to give the media more firepower to make it a huge scandal, and it looks like some Republicans are helping them do it:
The deal would create a 10-person body, with five commissioners, including the chairperson, picked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
The other half of the commission members would be selected by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) announced the plan with top committee Republican Rep. John Katko (R-NY). A bill to create the commission is being introduced Friday, with a likely House floor vote next week.
Katko is one of the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump with Liz Cheney, so of course he’ll be helping Democrats to try and hamstring Republicans. Trump hatred is a dangerous thing.
I am glad, however, that McCarthy is standing firm against this commission because this isn’t about the truth. Hopefully McConnell will join him and together they can keep this commission from happening.