Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) ripped House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Sunday for creating a “partisan” commission to investigate the January 6th Capitol riot.
Collins, a moderate Republican in the Senate, backed creating the commission to investigate the riot. She pulled support, however, after Pelosi shot down two proposed GOP commission members from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. To represent the GOP, Pelosi unilaterally installed two of her own Republicans on the committee: Reps. Liz Cheney (WY) and Adam Kinzinger (IL).
“I fought very hard to have an independent, bipartisan, nonpartisan, outside commission to look at all of the events of that day and I was very disappointed that it was not approved,” Collins said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper. “I think it would have had far more credibility than Speaker Pelosi’s partisan committee that she has set up. But we should have had a 9/11-style commission to fully look at what happened.”
Tapper then claimed that the commission Collins wanted did not happen because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell opposed the bill that would have created it. The host then questioned Collins over whether she trusted the Republicans that Pelosi installed on the committee without McCarthy’s approval.
“I respect both of them, but I do not think it was right for the speaker to decide which Republicans should be on the committee,” Collins responded. “Normally, if you have a select committee, the minority leader and the speaker get to pick the members.”
“I do not think it was right for the Speaker to decide which Republicans should be on the committee,” says GOP Sen. Susan Collins on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to reject two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s picks for the Jan. 6 select committee. #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/eazGtG9509
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 1, 2021
Pelosi vetoed McCarthy’s committee picks, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), in what she acknowledged as an “unprecedented” move. Jordan later slammed Pelosi for axing him from the committee and said she should be called to testify in front of it.
“The real question is, and I’ve said this many times, why weren’t those guys who testified today and all the other Capitol Hill police who protect us and protect Capitol Hill, why weren’t they given more help?” Jordan said.
“Why wasn’t more help there that day? And the only person who can answer that question is the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives,” he continued. “And I think she thought we were going to keep raising that question, and that’s why she didn’t put me on [the committee].”
In May, McConnell announced his opposition to the Democratic plan for a “9/11-style” commission to investigate the January 6 riot.
“The Department of Justice is deep into a massive criminal investigation,” McConnell said on the morning of the Senate vote. “I do not believe the additional, extraneous ‘commission’ that Democratic leaders want would uncover crucial new facts or promote healing. Frankly, I do not believe it is even designed to.”
“That’s why the Speaker’s first draft began with a laughably rigged and partisan starting point, and why the current language would still lock in significant unfairness under the hood,” he added.
While Republicans were able to defeat the measure through the filibuster, six GOP senators sided with Democrats during the vote: Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.
After the commission bill died in the Senate, Pelosi announced in June she intended to form a commission in the House anyway. The rules of creating the commission, written by Pelosi, gave her the ability to veto any Republican picks to sit on the committee and set the timetable for the commission at “as long as it takes.”