Pelosi Shoots Down Reports That She Formed a Select Committee to Investigate Capitol Incursion
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted Tuesday that she has not launched a special, select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion.
At least not yet.
As word that she was forming a committee to do her bidding began to filter through Capitol Hill, the California Democrat sought to rein in the speculation, according to The Hill.
“No, I did not make that announcement,” Pelosi said. “Somebody put out a false report.”
The Hill said a “Democratic source” had been spreading the word that the speaker had decided to form a select committee to look into the riot at the Capitol.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said Pelosi was still examining her options, one of which was a select committee.
“Speaker Pelosi told Members she plans to announce WHETHER she will create a select committee THIS WEEK,” Hammill tweeted Tuesday.
“Her preference continues to be a bipartisan commission which Senate Republicans are blocking.”
Clarification on tonight’s meeting of the Steering and Policy Committee. Speaker Pelosi told Members she plans to announce WHETHER she will create a select committee THIS WEEK. Her preference continues to be a bipartisan commission which Senate Republicans are blocking.
— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) June 22, 2021
However, CNN reported that regardless of what she said, Pelosi plans to create a select committee.
Any committee created by Pelosi would be led by Democrats, leaving its findings open to charges that the panel was created as some sort of political fishing expedition.
Big push now by members of Congressional Black Caucus for Homeland Security Chair Bennie Thompson to lead whatever 1/6 investigation Pelosi chooses
She tapped Thompson to negotiation the Commission
-and he wants to do it
No word on any decision from Pelosi yet..— Mona (@Monaheart1229) June 17, 2021
Nancy Pelosi wants to spend her time issuing fines to Republicans who don’t wear face masks on the House floor, rather than create a commission to discover whether or not COVID-19 was a man-made virus which escaped OR WAS RELEASED from a Chinese lab. ONLY WANTS TO HURT GOP
— Barbara Yano (@barbarayano) June 23, 2021
The Democrat-controlled House passed a plan to create a bipartisan commission, but Senate Republicans — much like most of their colleagues in the House — have opposed the commission on the grounds that it carries a bipartisan label but still would do the Democratic Party’s bidding.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said he and others were concerned that despite claims of bipartisanship, the commission would be “a political weapon in the hands of the Democrats,” according to The Washington Post.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has said that the various investigations already underway should finish before Democrats start another one.
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“It’s not at all clear what new facts or additional investigation yet another commission could actually lay on top of existing efforts by law enforcement and Congress,” McConnell said.
“The facts have come out, they’ll continue to come out,” he said in rejecting the House proposal for a commission.
“What is clear is that House Democrats have handled this proposal in partisan bad faith going right back to the beginning, from initially offering a laughably partisan starting point to continuing to insist on various other features under the hood that are designed to centralize control over the commission’s process and its conclusions in Democratic hands.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
