House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced on Thursday that House Democrats will form a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection that then-President Trump helped incite, following Senate Republicans’ deployment of the filibuster to kill the bill that would have created a bipartisan commission to do the same work.
“This morning, with great solemnity and sadness, I’m announcing that the House will be establishing a select committee on the Jan. 6 insurrection,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi told colleagues Wednesday she’d make a decision on whether to form the select committee this week.
During the announcement, Pelosi took aim at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), citing his reported remarks last month urging his Republican colleagues to do him a “personal favor” by voting against the Jan. 6 commission.
“A temple of our democracy was attacked by insurrectionists,” Pelosi said. “It is imperative that we seek the truth as to what happened.”
After stressing that Jan. 6 was “one of the darkest days” in the nation’s history, Pelosi said that the House select committee will investigate “the facts and the causes of the attack” and will recommend next steps on how to prevent similar attacks from happening again.
Pelosi added that she still prefers and holds out hope for an independent 9/11-style commission to probe Jan. 6, and that a select committee would be “complementary” to it.
The House speaker did not provide details about who will be on the select committee, saying that she will make an announcement on the matter. The committee will only need to pass through the House and will be staffed by members of Congress.
When asked about House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) remarks panning the select committee as a “political” move, Pelosi said she is not worried about findings by the committee being dismissed, and that she hopes McCarthy will “appoint responsible people” to the committee.
Pelosi declined to say whether McCarthy will be called to testify by the select committee, saying that it’s up to the panel to make that call.
“I’m not going into what the committee will do. That’s up to the committee to make their determination,” Pelosi said. “But it is clear that the Republicans are afraid of the truth.”
The House speaker’s announcement comes almost six months after the breaching of the Capitol on the day of the joint session of Congress certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Pelosi’s announcement also comes four weeks after Senate Republicans tanked the commission bill that would have established an independent and bipartisan 9/11-style panel investigating the Capitol insurrection.
