Pelosi names GOP's Liz Cheney to panel investigating Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday named Republican Rep. Liz Cheney to a new select committee on the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, elevating the most unyielding GOP critic of former President Donald Trump to work alongside seven Democrats on the high-profile investigation.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will lead the panel, which will investigate what went wrong around the Capitol when hundreds of Trump supporters broke into the building. The rioters brutally beat police, hunted for lawmakers and interrupted the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's election victory over Trump.
Standing with other members of the committee after a meeting together in Pelosi's office, Cheney said she was “honored” to serve on the committee and that her duty is to the Constitution.
“And that will always be above politics,” Cheney said.
Her appointment came just hours after House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to strip Republicans of committee assignments if they accepted an appointment from Pelosi to the panel. McCarthy told a closed-door meeting of first-term House GOP members on Wednesday that he, not Pelosi, controls Republicans' committee assignments, according to a top GOP aide. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private meeting.
After Pelosi's announcement, McCarthy demurred, saying at a news conference that “I'm not making any threats.”. But he made clear he wasn't happy with Cheney.
“I was shocked that she would accept something from Speaker Pelosi,” McCarthy said. “It would seem to me, since I didn't hear from her, maybe she's closer to her than us.”
Asked if she had been informed she would lose her committee assignments, Cheney said she had not.
The Wyoming Republican's appointment to the panel, and the warning from McCarthy, underscores the sharp and growing differences between the two parties over the insurrection. Many Republicans remain loyal to Trump and are loath to spend time reviewing the attack by his supporters. GOP leaders are working to shape the narrative about the committee's work, complaining that it will be dominated by Democrats even though the Republicans scuttled an earlier attempt to form a bipartisan commission.
