Speaker Pelosi Adds Adam Kinzinger to January 6th Select Committee

 What’s the story?

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Sunday announced that she named Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) to serve on the House select committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
• Pelosi noted in a statement that Kinzinger is an Air Force veteran and serves in the Air National Guard and, “He brings great patriotism to the Committee’s mission: to find the facts and protect our Democracy.”
• Kinzinger said in a statement that “I’m a Republican dedicated to conservative values, but I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution ― and while this is not the position I expected to be in or sought out, when duty calls, I will always answer.”
• Kinzinger joins Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as the second GOP lawmaker to be appointed to the select committee by Pelosi. Cheney and Kinzinger were two of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump on the charge of “incitement of insurrection” stemming from his false claims that the outcome of the election was the result of fraud, including remarks from a speech he gave in D.C. on the day of the Capitol riot.
• Cheney and Kinzinger were also the only two GOP lawmakers to vote in favor of the resolution forming the January 6th select committee, which gave Democrats eight picks to five for Republicans but vested Speaker Pelosi with the power to veto picks made by the GOP minority. Pelosi initially named seven Democrats along with Cheney.
• House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) named five GOP lawmakers to the committee, but after Pelosi rejected the selections of Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) as ranking member and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) out of “respect for the integrity of the investigation” due to “statements and actions” they made which she declined to specify.
• In response to Pelosi’s vetoing the selections of Banks and Jordan, McCarthy called the speaker’s move “unprecedented” and an “egregious abuse of power”. He then withdrew the nomination of his three remaining picks ― Reps. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), Rodney Davis (R-IL), and Troy Nehls (R-TX) ― unless Pelosi reinstates Banks and Jordan. 
• McCarthy criticized Cheney and Kinzinger as being “Pelosi Republicans” for accepting the Democratic speaker’s offer to serve on the January 6th select committee.
• The select committee is expected to hold its first hearing Tuesday morning, which will feature testimony from several Capitol Police officers testifying in their personal capacity about their experiences during the January 6th Capitol riot.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: Pelosi: U.S. Embassy Ghana via Flickr / Public Domain | Kinzinger: Hudson Institute via Flickr / Creative Commons)