GOP Leader McCarthy opposes Jan. 6 commission ahead of vote
Written by Associated Press on May 18, 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday he opposes a proposal to form an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, almost certainly eroding GOP support ahead of a vote.
McCarthy said he wanted the new panel to look beyond the violent uprising by supporters loyal to Donald Trump, who were trying to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s election. He pushed to have the new commission also investigate other groups, namely the Black Lives Matter groups that protested police violence in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee who drafted the proposal rejected that approach.
McCarthy said that given the “shortsighted scope that does not examine interrelated forms of political violence in America, I cannot support this legislation.”
The GOP leader’s opposition all but ensures this week’s vote will have less Republican support in the House, and dims its chances in the evenly divided Senate.
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