House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) on Sunday signaled that former President Trump could be called to testify before the House select committee probing the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection “if that’s what it takes.”
“If it comes to that, they should go wherever the facts lead. They may be able to get what they want and need without him testifying,” Clyburn said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Clyburn added that he would not want to see a former president testifying before the select committee on the Capitol attack, but did not rule out the possibility.
“I would not want to see a former president testifying in such a situation as this. But if that’s what it takes in order to get to the bottom of this, because this is more than any one person. This is this country,” Clyburn said.
Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that the House select committee will be chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who also serves as the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee. Thompson will have unilateral subpoena power as the chair of the select committee tasked with investigating the deadly Capitol insurrection that Trump helped incite.
Pelosi selected Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as a member of the select committee. Cheney, who was ousted as the No. 3 Republican earlier this year after she vehemently refused to do Trump’s bidding of pushing the big lie of a stolen election, is the sole Republican set to serve on the committee thus far.
The resolution for the select committee indicated that Pelosi will appoint all 13 members, though she’ll consult with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on five of them. McCarthy has not indicated whether he will appoint Republicans to the select committee.
After the House passed legislation last week in a near party-line vote to set up the select committee, McCarthy reportedly delivered an ultimatum to freshmen members of his caucus, saying that he would revoke committee assignments from any Republican member if they accepted an offer from Pelosi to join the select committee.
The formation of the select committee comes more than a month after Senate Republicans used the filibuster to tank legislation that would have established an independent, bipartisan commission to probe the Capitol insurrection.
