House Democrats are defending a 7-to-4 advantage for an initial proposal from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a 9/11-style commission to investigate and respond to the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol building, in part by accusing some members of the House Republican leadership of being untrustworthy.
“I’m not prepared to say that a seven-four split is unfair, based on who actually is part of the commission,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said in a Wednesday press conference.
House leaders are reportedly stuck in negotiations on the breakdown of the number of people on the commission appointed by Democrats and Republicans. Republicans want an even split, with each party appointing five members, and are blasting Pelosi for the partisan advantage.
House Republicans are not alone in their criticism of Democrats’ proposed breakdown of appointees. Leaders of the 9/11 Commission, which had an even partisan breakdown, have said the 9/11 Commission was successful in part due to the even partisan breakdown and that Pelosi would be making a mistake if she gave Democrats an advantage.
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Jeffries insisted that Democrats want the commission to be handled in a “bipartisan fashion” and noted that the plan is just an “initial framework.” But he also suggested that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, should feel grateful for being part of the process at all, accusing him of operating in bad faith.
“We just have an initial framework that has been presented and, in fact, was shared by Speaker Pelosi with Leader McCarthy, who doesn’t always operate in good faith,” Jeffries said. “He set a bad tone on Jan. 3 by delivering an egregious speech on the floor and then, of course, has continued to provide aid and comfort to the insurrectionists, including by voting with those objections. All of that said, Speaker Pelosi still presented the framework to the Republicans.”
And Jeffries suggested that Republicans are untrustworthy.
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“Certainly, there are some members of House Republican leadership — some — as well as some members of the House Republican Conference who have given us no reason to be trustful of them with respect to approaching this in a manner that simply allows for the commission to follow the facts, apply the governing law and the Constitution, and let the truth emerge, wherever that falls,” Jeffries said.
