Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is angling to get herself a new gig after being stripped from all of her committees for threatening Democrats in social media posts: the January 6 select committee.
“I have time on my hands, right?” she told Newsmax. “I don’t have any committee assignments, so I think it’s the perfect thing to happen.”
She added that she’d like to be on the committee to ensure that it doesn’t become a “witch hunt against Trump supporters,” and to find out who killed Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter who was fatally shot by police as she tried to climb through a window to the House chamber.
Per the resolution released Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has the final say on all 13 committee appointees, though she’ll consult with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for five of them.
A senior Democratic aide confirmed to TPM that Pelosi is reserving the right to reject any of McCarthy’s selections.
“The language for the Benghazi select committee was the same,” the aide said, adding: “McCarthy is not going to name MTG.”
As the House prepares to vote on the committee bill this week, Republicans are, predictably, orienting themselves against it. Most Republicans in both chambers voted against the independent commission, which called for evenly-split appointees by party, and required bipartisan cooperation to issue subpoenas. The select committee will be dominated by Pelosi’s picks with unilateral subpoena power for the chair, all but guaranteeing Republican opposition.
Even Rep. John Katko (R-NY), one of the authors of the bill outlining the bipartisan commission, has already come out swinging against the select committee.
“It would be a turbo-charged partisan exercise, not an honest fact-finding body that the American people and Capitol Police deserve,” he said in a statement. “For those reasons, I will not support its creation when voted upon. Recognizing the deeply disappointing departure this represents from a truly bipartisan solution, I have a hard time envisioning a scenario where I would participate, if asked.”
Pelosi is reportedly considering choosing a Republican herself for the committee — obvious picks like Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) have not ruled out serving if asked.
The resolution does not list a due date for the committee’s final report, meaning that its investigation may spill into the 2022 midterm campaign season — a prospect Republicans have fretted about.
The House is planning to vote on the committee this week, and the legislation will likely pass largely on party lines. When the House voted on the independent commission, 35 Republicans broke with McCarthy in voting to pass the bill. No such jailbreak is expected this time.
