Bennie Thompson to chair Jan. 6 panel, Pelosi announces
“The American people deserve to know what happened on Jan. 6," Rep. Bennie Thompson stated after Nancy Pelosi announced a select committee to investigate the Capitol insurrection
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a select committee to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection on Thursday.
This comes in response to the violent riot at the Capitol about seven months ago involving hundreds of President Trump supporters protesting the final Electoral College count that would send President Joe Biden to the White House.
The House select committee will include Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Elaine Luria, D-Va., along with Liz Cheney, R-Wyo, NBC News reports.
Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, was tapped to chair the select committee.
“Thanks to @SpeakerPelosi for appointing me as Chair of the House select committee,” Thompson wrote on Twitter. “The American people deserve to know what happened on Jan 6. #January6thCommission”
“It is clear that #January6th was not simply an attack on a building, but on our very democracy: an attack on the peaceful transfer of power,” Thompson also stated. “It is imperative that we find the truth of that day and ensure that such an assault on our Capitol and Democracy cannot again happen.”
Meanwhile, Cheney, from the other side of the aisle, is also looking forward to supporting this effort.
Cheney released a statement Thursday saying, “Our oath to the Constitution must be above partisan politics.”
She took to Twitter to share her perspective after Pelosi appointed her on the new select committee.
“I’m honored to have been named to serve on the January 6th select committee,” she wrote. “Congress is obligated to conduct a full investigation of the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814,” Cheney said in a statement Thursday.
“That day saw the most sacred space in our Republic overrun by an angry and violent mob attempting to stop the counting of electoral votes and threatening the peaceful transfer of power.”
She continued to say that the events of Jan. 6 can never happen again and called for accountability.
“Those who are responsible for the attack need to be held accountable and this select committee will fulfill that responsibility in a professional, expeditious, and non-partisan manner,” she stated. “Our oath to the Constitution, our commitment to the rule of law, and the preservation of the peaceful transfer of power must always be above partisan politics.”
Speaking out against Trump and fellow Republicans regarding their false election fraud claims led to Cheney’s removal from her position as chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, NBC News reports.
According to multiple sources, as reported by NBC News, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made threats to other Republicans saying he would end their current committee assignments if they joined the select committee appointed by Pelosi.
McCarthy alleged that he is “not making any threats about committee assignments,” NBC News reported, adding that he found it “shocking” for a member of the GOP to say yes to a committee assignment from the House Speaker and not from Republican leadership.
Nonetheless, Pelosi closed her statements during the press conference Thursday by expressing confidence in the committee selected “to work in a nonpartisan way for the people.”
“And as we go into the Fourth of July with great pride in the fact that we will be closer to the truth because of the willingness of such a distinguished group to take this responsibility,” Pelosi said during the press conference.
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