Republican Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.) said on Sunday that investigations into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are “politically to the advantage of Democrats to try to keep this issue in the forefront.”
“We have a lot of investigations underway now. There are Senate committees that have completed some. There are others still in progress. We have many criminal investigations. I would favor a truly bipartisan commission, but I think there — we should be candid about the fact that it is politically to the advantage of Democrats to try to keep this issue in the forefront,” Toomey told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Toomey cited remarks from James Carville, contending that the Democratic strategist has “urged the Democrats, don’t let the election be about Joe Biden and his policies in 2022; make that election about Jan. 6 and Donald Trump.”
“So it’s very clear that Democrats have an incentive to try to drive a political message here and a purely partisan commission in the House. It’s probably gonna do that,” Toomey added.
Republicans labeled the select committee to probe the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as partisan after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week rejected two of the five Republican nominees to the panel: Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Jim Banks (Ill.), both of whom are staunch supporters of former President Trump.
Pelosi on Sunday defended her decision to turn down the nominees, saying in an interview that the two lawmakers “are people who would jeopardize the integrity of the investigation, and there’s no way I would tolerate their antics.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) responded to the Speaker’s move by pulling all five of his nominees, leaving Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) as the sole Republican on the panel.
On Sunday, however, Pelosi signaled that she will likely appoint Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) to the committee, saying in an interview, “You could say that’s the direction I would be going.”
Cheney and Kinzinger are two of the 10 GOP House members who voted to impeach Trump for a second time in January.