GOP ‘shadow committee’ releases report on Jan. 6 security failures
Virginia Aabram
A group of Republican would-be members of the Jan. 6 committee released the findings of their counter-investigation into the Jan. 6 riots ahead of the select committee’s release of its own final report later Wednesday.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) put forward five members to serve on the panel but ultimately withdrew them after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) balked at the inclusion of Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Jim Jordan (R-OH).
The GOP report focuses on how Capitol Police were unprepared for the 2021 riot that tried to halt Congress from certifying Joe Biden as winner of the 2020 presidential election. Along with Banks and Jordan, three other Republican lawmakers — Troy Nehls (R-TX), Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), and Rodney Davis (R-IL) — place the blame for the situation getting out of hand on Democratic leaders who didn’t shore up security.
“When Speaker Pelosi made the unprecedented decision to reject Jim Banks and Jim Jordan from sitting on the January 6
Select Committee — we knew she intended to play politics instead of addressing the massive security failures that lead to that day,” the group said in a statement.
“We said then that we would investigate and get to the bottom of why the Capitol was left so unprepared that day, and what needs to be done to make sure our security apparatus is never left so unprepared again,” the group added. “Unsurprisingly, the Select Committee appears to have spent almost no time on this issue. We release the following report to answer these questions, and to lay groundwork for security reforms as we prepare to lead a safer and more secure Campus in the 118
th
Congress and beyond.”
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