Republicans block independent commission to investigate attack on U.S. Capitol Sahil Kapur and Frank Thorp V and Julie Tsirkin and Leigh Ann Caldwell and Dareh Gregorian
WASHINGTON Senate Republicans blocked legislation on Friday that would create an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The vote was 54 in favor and 35 against short of the 60 needed to proceed, making it the first bill of the new Democratic-controlled Congress to be thwarted by a filibuster on the Senate floor.
Six GOP senators broke with their leadership and voted with 48 Democratic members to proceed to debate the bill: Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska; Rob Portman, of Ohio; Ben Sasse, of Nebraska; Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana; Mitt Romney, of Utah; and Susan Collins, of Maine.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell usually has facts and logic to support what he says, but in opposing a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, he comes up short, by claiming that it would be “a purely political exercise that adds nothing to the sum total of information.”
To use one of his favorite adjectives of dismissal, it’s absurd for McConnell to say that a broad, bipartisan investigation would add no information. How do we really know without such an investigation?
McConnell noted that the Justice Department has made hundreds of arrests and is still investigating, as are congressional committees, but Justice must operate within the bounds of federal criminal law, which may not cover all the actions that inspired the riot, and the focus of Congress is the federal response to the riot and the security needs of the Capitol, not the events that led up to it.
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Democratic congressman Bennie Thompson has announced that he and Rep John Katko, a Republican, have agreed on a bill to establish a commission investigating the 6 January Capitol riot.They will introduce the bill in the House of Representatives today, Mr Thompson said, and the House is expected to consider it next week.“I am pleased that after many months of intensive discussion, Ranking Member Katko and I were able to reach a bipartisan agreement,” Rep Thompson said in a statement. “Inaction – or just moving on – is simply not an option. The creation of this commission is our way of.
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