GOP lawmakers stick by McCarthy despite Jan. 6 strategy criticism
House Republicans are sticking by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) decision to boycott the Jan. 6 select committee, softening the blow from former President Trump publicly bashing McCarthy’s strategy as splashy hearings paint him in a negative light.
One of McCarthy’s original picks for the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), expressed a desire to counter the Democrats on the panel but took a what’s-done-is-done attitude.
“It would have been nice to be on the committee,” Nehls said. “But I respect the leader. It’s not my decision, it was his. He made the decision and I live with it.”
Rep. Kelly Armstrong (N.D.), another one of McCarthy’s picks, said that the GOP leader “100 percent” made the right choice to boycott the committee.
“Sometimes in the minority, you have two bad choices. Kevin made the only choice he can make, and I stand by him,” Armstrong said.
By not appointing members to the committee, Republicans lost the ability to be present during closed-door depositions, leaving Trump and his team with little insight as to what information the committee might release next. They also have no opportunity to shape the hearings or counter the Democrats’ questioning
“I think it would have been good if we had representation,” Trump told Punchbowl News in an interview this week. “We should’ve picked other people” after Pelosi blocked him from the committee, he added.
In another interview with conservative talk show host Wayne Allyn Root over the weekend, Trump said it was a “foolish decision” to not have members on the panel defending him.
Nearly a year ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made the unprecedented move of vetoing two of McCarthy’s five picks to sit on the select committee, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.). In response, McCarthy pulled his other three picks: Reps. Rodney Davis (Ill.), Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) and Nehls.
Trump isn’t the only one who has criticized McCarthy for pulling his picks. Former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who was arrested this month for contempt of Congress in defying a subpoena from the committee, in December called McCarthy’s decision his “original sin.”
“What an idiot,” Navarro told Newsmax. “I mean, he plays checkers in a chess world at a critical time. He refused to put Republicans on that committee other than Liz Cheney, who’s not a Republican, so we lost our opportunity to publicly press that advantage.”
