House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) released a statement Wednesday calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) January 6 Committee “illegitimate” and saying that he would not participate in its “abuse of power.”
“This committee is not conducting a legitimate investigation,” McCarthy said, according to Fox News congressional reporter Chad Pergram.
“And now it wants to interview me about public statements that have been shared with the world, and private conversations not remotely related to the violence that unfolded at the Capitol,” McCarthy added. “I have nothing else to add. As a representative and the leader of the minority party, it is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have concluded to not participate with this select committee’s abuse of power that stains this institution today.”
In addition to the comments Pergram reported, McCarthy released a full statement on his decision not to cooperate with the committee’s requests.
Pelosi’s select committee is illegitimate.
Read my statement here: https://t.co/UKVYoFmLMo
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) January 13, 2022
“This committee is not conducting a legitimate investigation as Speaker Pelosi took the unprecedented action of rejecting the Republican members I named to serve on the committee. It is not serving any legislative purpose. The committee’s only objective is to attempt to damage its political opponents – acting like the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee one day and the DOJ the next,” McCarthy wrote, referencing Pelosi’s unilateral decision to bar his selected representatives — Congressmen Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN) — from serving on the committee.
“The committee has demanded testimony from staffers who applied for First Amendment permits. It has subpoenaed the call records of private citizens and their financial records from banks while demanding secrecy not supported by law. It has lied about the contents of documents it has received. It has held individuals in contempt of Congress for exercising their Constitutional right to avail themselves of judicial proceedings. And now it wants to interview me about public statements that have been shared with the world, and private conversations not remotely related to the violence that unfolded at the Capitol. I have nothing else to add,” McCarthy continued. “As a representative and the leader of the minority party, it is with neither regret nor satisfaction that I have concluded to not participate with this select committee’s abuse of power that stains this institution today and will harm it going forward.”
Jordan also drafted a letter to the January 6 Committee, saying that he had nothing to add.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) January 10, 2022
Jordan panned the committee’s claim that he was a “material witness” and rebuffed the request for his communications and testimony as “far outside the bounds of any legitimate inquiry,” that it “violates core Constitutional principles, and would serve to further erode legislative norms.”
“Even if I had information to share with the Select Committee, the actions and statements of Democrats in the House of Representatives show that you are not conducting a fair-minded and objective inquiry,” he added.
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Source: Dailywire
