GOP allies of former President Trump are slamming the unanimous Thursday vote by the House Jan. 6, 2021, select committee to subpoena Trump, deriding it as a political tactic ahead of the midterm elections.
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), the third-ranking GOP member in the House, brushed off the subpoena as a “political ploy.”
“Today’s subpoena of President Donald J. Trump less than one month from the midterm elections is a desperate political ploy by Democrats and their mainstream media stenographer allies,” Stefanik said in a statement after the hearing.
“The American people are smart and the Democrats’ abuse of power will only energize the American people to Fire Nancy Pelosi once and for all and deliver a red tsunami that will elect a historic Republican Majority to hold Joe Biden accountable.”
Republicans are favored to win back the House majority in November’s midterms, which would end the second Speakership term of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who was previously Trump’s White House doctor, tweeted that the committee is “OUT OF CONTROL.”
“Subpoenaing President Trump is a DISGRACE! They want to DESTROY Trump and EVERY one of his supporters!” Jackson said.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a former chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, tweeted that the Trump subpoena is a “political hatchet job by a political hatchet committee.”
“This committee is illegitimately formed, in violation of House rules, and is organized to search and destroy perceived political enemies,” Biggs said.
Their statements aligned with Trump’s own lashing out to the subpoena. He said that the committee waited until “the final moments of their last meeting” to ask him to speak to them “because the Committee is a total ‘BUST’ that has only served to further divide our Country.”
The vote to subpoena Trump came during what might be the Jan. 6 panel’s final public hearing on Thursday, after months of wavering on the decision.
House Republicans overall were far less active in online chatter during Thursday’s hearing than during some previous hearings.
In one instance, the House GOP conference had to delete a tweet that publicly attacked Sarah Matthews, former deputy press secretary in the Trump White House, for testifying despite the fact that she was working as GOP staff in the House at the time.
But the House Judiciary Committee GOP account, run by Republican staff under ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), did react to the subpoena news: “The country is experiencing record crime and record inflation. Sadly, Democrats can’t get over their weird OBSESSION of President Trump to do anything about it.”
Republicans have long argued that the committee has no legitimate authority because it has no members appointed by the Republican minority leader. Those arguments have been rejected in courts. Pelosi vetoed two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) picks for the panel, prompting him to pull his other three choices and boycott participation in the committee.
Pelosi did appoint two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), causing them to be formally censured by the Republican National Committee.