WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is going about appointing Republicans to the Jan. 6 committee after House GOP leaders removed the five Republicans they had previously appointed.
The Five were removed by House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy after Pelosi booting both Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) off the committee. It’s a move that Indiana Democratic Party chairman Mike Schmuhl says was the right call by Pelosi.
“Having Jim Banks on that committee is kind of like having Peyton Manning play for the New England Patriots. It just doesn’t make sense,” Schmuhl said to All Indiana Politics.
“You know, I look back to Jan. 5, the day before the insurrection, and Jim Banks was really encouraging and prodding along folks to come to D.C. Really inciting some of the stuff that former President Trump was also doing.”
Schmuhl added that it’s already known where Banks stands on the issue of the riots would not have been a “non-partisan judge” if he had been allowed to remain on the committee. It’s the same thing that Banks is accusing Democrats would be by not allowing the lawmakers GOP leaders had selected originally to be on the committee.
“She’s already predetermined a narrative about Donald Trump, about Republicans,” Banks told Fox News Sunday. “She doesn’t want to talk about what happened that day at the Capitol to make sure nothing like that ever happens again.”
Banks again accused Pelosi of avoiding the questions that Republicans want to ask in regards to the breakdown in security that day.
Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger is the second GOP lawmaker appointed by Pelosi to the committee. The other so far is Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) who was one of Pelosi’s original seven appointees. Both Kinzinger and Cheney voted in favor of impeaching President Trump for inciting an insurrection.
