Donald Trump expressed his disappointment with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy this week over his decision to pull Republicans off the January 6th Select Committee.
The former President was speaking with Punchbowl News when he said he felt like Republicans lost their voice thanks to McCarthy’s decision.
“Well, I think in retrospect, I think it would have been very smart to put’ Republicans on the committee ‘to just have a voice,” said Trump
He continued, “I wasn’t involved in it from a standpoint so I never looked at it too closely,’ he added. ‘But I think it would have been good if we had representation. The Republicans don’t have a voice. They don’t even have anything to say.”
Republicans had initially been invited to take part in the January 6th Committee and hearings, which was originally supposed to have 13 members, 5 Republicans and 8 Democrats.
Two of McCarthy’s requested members, Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, were rejected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi claimed they couldn’t participate because they had both voted to decertify the 2020 election results. Interestingly, Troy Nehls of Texas, who voted the same as Jordan and Banks, was also selected for the committee and Pelosi did not reject his appointment.
The Speaker then told McCarthy to pick 2 other members of the over 400 person Congress to represent the party on the Committee, however, McCarthy declined and ordered all Republicans not to participate.
Instead, the Democrats got to hand pick their own 2 Republicans to represent the party during the hearings, the notoriously anti-Trump Liz Cheney and Adam Kitzinger.
Trump laid the blame for this move directly at McCarthy’s feet, saying, “They (Jordan and Banks) were great and would’ve been great to have them, but when Pelosi wrongfully didn’t allow them, we should’ve picked other people. We have a lot of good people in the Republican Party.”
Because of the decision not to appoint any Republicans by McCarthy, the committee will get to proceed with several more weeks of public hearings with little to no opposition or outside viewpoints being offered.
Kevin McCarthy and the Republican party moved to counter Kitzinger and Cheney by censuring them in their states. This did nothing, however, to silence them on the committee.
Rep Kitzinger chose not to run for reelection after coming out against Trump over the January 6th riots. Rep. Cheyney is currently facing a tough reelection bid, with many polls showing her down by about 30-points versus her Trump-backed opponent.
McCarthy had a chance to have Republican representation on the Committee and chose not to as a message to Pelosi. Do you think he made the right decision or should he have just replaced Jordan and Banks and moved on?
