- MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned her Democratic counterparts “to be careful” which Republicans to include on the committee of inquiry into the January 6th Capitol Riot.
- “There is evidence that some of these people were involved and we cannot let them be part of the investigation,” she tweeted.
- Only two House Republicans voted for the committee after the party torpedoed a bipartisan commission last month.
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MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned her Democratic counterparts to “be careful” which Republicans they let sit on the special committee to investigate the January 6 uprising because she claimed some GOP members were “involved”.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted almost entirely along the party lines to form a special committee to investigate the January 6th events. The 13-member committee consists of eight members selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and five members who “after consulting with minority leaders.” Republicans torpedoing a bipartisan commission to investigate the Capitol insurrection , called the special committee “manipulated from the start”.
“We need a special committee to investigate the January 6th terrorist attack domestically,” the congresswoman tweeted on Wednesday evening. “But we also have to be careful with Republicans who might be on the committee. There is evidence that some of these people were involved and we cannot bring them into the investigation.”
A number of Republican lawmakers, including Reps Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, and Andrew Clyde, have tried to minimize the Capitol riot and to spread conspiracy theories about the events.
Since January, Ocasio-Cortez has said repeatedly that she and some of her Democratic counterparts feel unsafe around certain Republican members, including those who supported dangerous conspiracy theories like QAnon and lied about the 2020 election result.
Other lawmakers, including Republican MP Liz Cheney, have suggested that Republican Congressmen were implicated in the deadly attack on the Capitol. Cheney was one of only two Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote for the select committee on Wednesday.
Cheney, who has been ousted by the GOP leadership for repeatedly blaming Trump for the uprising, said members of her party are concerned about being found guilty, encouraged, or otherwise involved in the attack.
“A number of members of my own party are very concerned about a January 6 commission,” Cheney said. “This kind of intense, narrow focus threatens people in my party who may have played roles that they shouldn’t have played.”