Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) came out in support of the House-passed Jan. 6 commission bill investigating the attack on the Capitol, joining Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) as the second Republican senator to back the bill.
“I’m going to support it,” Murkowski told reporters when asked about whether she will vote for the Jan. 6 commission bill that passed last week, with 35 House Republicans crossing party lines to approve the measure.
Murkowski’s remarks come a day after Romney voiced his support for the bill, which needs the support of 10 Republicans to pass the Senate.
All 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump for “incitement of insurrection” crossed party lines to approve the measure in a 252-175 vote.
Republican senators, however, are already showing signs that the bill, which gives Democrats a win on scope, faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) voiced their opposition to the Jan. 6 commission, before the House bill for it passed. Although the proposed commission would be evenly split between both parties, McConnell and McCarthy complained that the bill was partisan for a laundry list of bad faith reasons.
Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Roy Blunt, both of whom serve in GOP leadership, have also come out against the House-passed bill.
Republicans who initially said they were supportive of the commission’s formation have since distanced themselves from their previous remarks.
On Sunday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) — who, like Romney and Murkowski, voted to convict former President Trump for “incitement of insurrection — said that she “strongly” supports an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, but only under certain circumstances.
