House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) accused Democrats on Friday of “weaponizing” the committee investigating the January 6 Capitol Riot, indicating that Republicans cannot cooperate with an ideologically motivated committee.
“For House Republican leaders to agree to participate in this political stunt would change the House forever,” Jordan and McCarthy wrote in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal.
“Every representative in the minority would be subject to compelled interrogations by the majority, under oath, without any foundation of fairness, and at the expense of taxpayers,” they added. “The American people deserve better than Democrats’ weaponization of its majority rule.”
The committee has requested information from McCarthy regarding his conversations with Trump “before, during and after” the riot, the Associated Press reported, noting that both Jordan and McCarthy were in contact with Trump ahead of the Capitol Riot.
My response to the Select Committee: https://t.co/iYQFDszwWg
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) May 27, 2022
In their op-ed, McCarthy and Jordan argued that the January 6 committee is “packed” with partisan lawmakers “working behind closed doors and selectively leaking cherry-picked information.”
“With no effective check on its power, the Select Committee is trampling on fundamental Constitutional rights,” they wrote. “It is investigating the political speech of private citizens and demanding access to their personal records and private communications. When disputes over the requests arise, the Committee refuses to engage and seeks to punish. There is no presumption of innocence; instead Chairman Bennie Thompson declared citizens who invoke the Fifth Amendment are ‘part and parcel guilty to what occurred.’”
The Republicans also accused the committee of “escalating its abusive tactics” by “subpoenaing us and three other Republican members.”
“This attempt to coerce information from members of Congress about their official duties is a dangerous abuse of power, serves no legitimate legislative purpose, and eviscerates constitutional norms,” they wrote. “Just because members of Congress are responsible for writing the laws doesn’t give a select few license to subvert them.”
They also insisted that even if the committee was acting in “good faith,” they have no “relevant information” that would help in advancing the committee’s purpose.
“Democrats know this because we told them in January,” Jordan and McCarthy wrote. “We told them we can’t attest to Speaker Pelosi’s failure to secure the Capitol in advance of Jan. 6. We can’t elaborate on former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund’s statement that a concern about “optics” contributed to the limited security response. And we can’t add to the bipartisan, comprehensive findings of the Senate investigative committee that were completed last year.”