President Biden on Wednesday ruled out appointing a presidential commission to probe the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, but plans on increasing pressure on Congress to create a committee.
Axios first reported the news.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the President’s opposition to creating his own Jan. 6 commission to Axios.
“As the President has said, the events of January 6th were an unprecedented assault on our democracy — and he believes they deserve a full, and independent, investigation to determine what transpired and ensure it can never happen again,” Psaki said in a statement to Axios.
Psaki told Axios that Biden “firmly agrees” with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that Congress “itself has a unique role and ability to carry out that investigation.”
“Because of that, the President doesn’t plan to appoint his own commission,” Psaki told Axios.
The President’s decision comes as no surprise after Pelosi ruled out a presidential commission to study the Capitol insurrection.
On Tuesday, Pelosi reportedly told House Democrats during a call that the President appointing the commission would be “unworkable,” according to the Associated Press.
Pelosi, instead, is gearing up to start a House-led investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection that then-President Trump helped incite. The House speaker reportedly outlined potential pathways for an investigation into the insurrection during the call with members of the House Democratic Caucus on Tuesday.
A White House official told CNN on Thursday that a presidential commission investigating the Capitol attack was never really taken into consideration.
Last week, Senate Republicans deployed the filibuster to kill the House-passed Jan. 6 commission bill that would form an independent bipartisan panel investigating the Capitol attack in a 54-35 vote.
