The House voted Wednesday to create a special committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol after the Senate rejected an earlier attempt to appoint an independent commission.
Most Republicans voted against creating the committee, which will be controlled and populated by Democrats eager to delve into pro-Trump and white nationalist groups who participated in the attack, as well as President Donald Trump’s culpability in sparking the riot.
The vote was 222-190, with all Democrats and two Republicans voting in favor.
“A select committee will finally get to the truth about the events of Jan. 6,” House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern said.
The committee will be tasked with examining what motivated the attack in Washington, D.C., as well as the hobbled response by Capitol security that allowed hundreds of angry protesters to storm the building, causing injuries and destruction and forcing lawmakers to flee for their safety.
Pelosi announced the plans to form the committee last week after the Senate blocked a House bill that would have created an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the attack.
While nearly three dozen House Republicans backed the bipartisan commission, only seven GOP lawmakers voted for it in the Senate, leaving it short of the 10 GOP votes needed to begin debate.
Republican leaders have balked at the need for a new congressional inquiry. Several House and Senate committees have been investigating the attack, and the Justice Department has made hundreds of arrests and is starting to prosecute those involved in the riot.
“The redundancy of another committee is not only unnecessary, but it is a distraction,” Rep. Beth Van Duyne, a Texas Republican, said. “It’s a distraction meant to mask humanitarian failures at the border, massive spikes in crime in cities across the country, and absolute inept leadership and confronting our foreign adversaries.”
Republicans are also interested in avoiding an extended congressional investigation that could pit them against the former president, who holds considerable influence over the GOP base and continues to assert the election was rigged in Biden’s favor.
In a move aimed at pressuring Republicans to back the commission, Pelosi invited police officers to sit in the viewing gallery, among them Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who was injured by rioters on Jan. 6. Pelosi also invited the family of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died of a stroke days after the attack.
Democrats have framed the debate over the commission as a matter of law and order, flipping a popular GOP narrative that Democrats do not support the police.
“The radical Right consistently claims to be the party of law and order, but they refuse to sign off on an investigation into the Jan. 6 violent attack on the Capitol, which embodied lawlessness and disorder,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, a representative from New York, said.
Democrats say they’ll probe Trump’s role in the riot.
They voted to impeach Trump last year for inciting the riot and continue to hold him responsible for what they describe as an insurrection at the Capitol aimed at blocking House and Senate lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
Republicans, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, “fear that we would look at the very essence of what January 6th was about.”
The issue has divided Republicans.
While 35 GOP lawmakers voted for the commission, far fewer backed the committee, which won’t be bipartisan.
A number of Republicans voted for the select committee, though, and Pelosi said she may appoint one of them to serve on it.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, opposed both the commission and the select committee and has not indicated he’ll appoint any GOP members.
McCarthy may be called as a witness.
On the day of the riot, lawmakers desperately sought help from the White House as they huddled in the Capitol. McCarthy held a tense call with Trump, asking him to call off the intruders.
Trump appeared unconcerned about the attack and accused McCarthy of not caring about the election results Trump was questioning.
Among those backing the committee was Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the riot. Cheney has been a vocal Trump critic, and her position against the former president led to a GOP caucus vote earlier this year to oust her from her leadership role.
Cheney supported the commission and disagreed with other GOP leaders who said the investigation should look into other violence and not just the Jan. 6 attack.
“I believe this committee is our only remaining option,” Cheney said in a statement Wednesday.
