Nancy Pelosi formally announces Democrat-led select committee to investigate the Capitol riot and criticizes 'cowardly' Republicans who blocked the 9/11-style commission in the Senate
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally announced Thursday that the Democrats would form a select committee to investigate the January 6 Capitol attack.
'This morning with great solemnity and sadness, I'm announcing the House will be establishing a select committee on the January 6 insurrection,' Pelosi said at her weekly press conference.
The California Democrat said the committee would investigate 'the facts and the causes of the attack and will report recommendations for the prevention of any future attack.'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally announced that the Democrats would form a select committee to investigate the January 6 Capitol attack
In late May, Senate Republicans deployed the filibuster to block a House-passed bill that would have formed a 9/11-style, bipartisan commission that would probe the MAGA riot.
At her Thursday press conference, Pelosi bristled at a CNN report that said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had asked Republicans to vote down the bill as a 'personal favor.'
'Cowardly, the Republican senators did him a personal favor, rather than honoring their patriotic duty to protect and defend,' Pelosi said.
Republican Sens. Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman and Ben Sasse voted alongside 48 Democrats in favor of forming the bipartisan commission, but the 54 to 35 vote tally fell short of the 60 votes needed.
Now Democrats, who have control of the House, will be in charge of the select committee.
Pelosi only announced the formation of such a body Thursday, not who would lead it and the scope of the investigation.
'I will make those announcements later, right now I am announcing that there will be a select committee, as there was at the time of 9/11 - a committee of the Congress of the United States,' Pelosi said.
Pelosi also said the select committee's timeline would be 'as long as it takes' to do the investigation.
She noted that Republicans voted against the 9/11-style commission because they thought the scope of a probe - to simply look at 1/6 - was too narrow.
'I just would not yield on the scope. They wanted to make it about Black Lives Matter. That wasn't what happened on January 6, so I was not going to yield on the scope,' Pelosi told reporters.
Some Republicans had demanded the investigation be about political violence on both sides of the aisle.
Pelosi also wouldn't answer a question of whether she thought it was important that her GOP counterpart, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, testify about a phone call he had with former President Donald Trump as the Capitol was being attacked by Trump's supporters.
'I'm not going into what the committee will do, that's up to the committee to make their determination, but it is clear the Republicans are afraid of the truth,' Pelosi said as she moved onto the next subject.
The House of Representatives previously impeached Trump over his role in inciting an insurrection on January 6, but he was acquitted by the Senate.
As part of the impeachment process, Democrats brought evidence before Congress about the MAGA attack, but it wasn't a full investigation into the day's events.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump invade the U.S. Capitol on January 6. A Democrat-led select committee will investigate the attack, Pelosi announced Thursday
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