Former President Donald Trump warned Democrats are setting a “trap” by pushing for a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot and urged congressional Republicans not to step into it.
“Republicans in the House and Senate should not approve the Democrat trap of the January 6 Commission,” Trump said in a statement from his Save America PAC on Tuesday. “It is just more partisan unfairness and unless the murders, riots, and fire bombings in Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, and New York are also going to be studied, this discussion should be ended immediately.”
Trump added, “Republicans must get much tougher and much smarter, and stop being used by the Radical Left. Hopefully, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy are listening!”
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Trump’s plea to Republicans follows the pronouncement earlier on Tuesday by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy that he will not support a Jan. 6 commission. McCarthy, citing protests and riots throughout 2020, as well as the 2017 shooting during which a gunman targeted Republicans who were practicing for a congressional baseball game, said as Trump did that the commission as introduced fails to address recent events of political violence comprehensively.
“The presence of this political violence in American society cannot be tolerated, and it cannot be overlooked,” the California Republican said in a statement. ”I have communicated this to our Democrat colleagues for months, and its omission is deeply concerning.”
McCarthy also said that a commission could “interfere with and ultimately undermine” current criminal investigations by federal authorities.
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation continues to investigate any and all crimes committed that day, and I fully support these individuals being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” McCarthy said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stopped short of ensuring support of the commission on Tuesday, saying Republicans “are pushing the pause button” on the current House-introduced measure.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot back at McCarthy on Tuesday for opposing a commission.
“I’m pleased that we have a bipartisan bill to come to the floor and disappointing but not surprising that the cowardice on the part of some on the Republican side not to want to find that truth,” Pelosi said.
The Capitol riot and the question of Trump’s role in it continue to divide Republicans. Like McCarthy, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia also publicly opposed a Jan. 6 commission on Tuesday.
However, Rep. Liz Cheney, who was recently ousted as the third-ranking House Republican, has supported the commission’s unique focus on Jan. 6, and Rep. John Katko of New York was the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee who agreed to the commission’s terms with Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson.
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Cheney and Katko were among the 10 House Republicans who voted in favor of impeaching Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection in connection to the riot. The former president was then acquitted by the Senate.
