The House of Representatives has launched a new investigation into the Capitol insurrection of January 6, approving a special committee to probe the violent attack as police officers who were injured fighting Donald Trump’s supporters watched from the gallery.
The vote to form the panel was 222-190, with Republicans objecting that majority Democrats would be in charge. The action came after Senate Republicans blocked the creation of an independent commission that would have been evenly split between the two parties.
Emphasising the importance Democrats attached to the vote, House speaker Nancy Pelosi told legislators in the chamber: “We will be judged by future generations as to how we value our democracy.”
Liz Cheney, who lost her position in the Republican leadership because of her criticism of Mr Trump, was one of only two in the party to vote for the panel, saying: “Our nation, and the families of the brave law enforcement officers who were injured defending us or died following the attack, deserve answers.”
I've said before that a bipartisan independent commission would've been the best way to investigate the Jan. 6th attack.
⁰That effort was unfortunately blocked. A select committee is now the only remaining option. I will vote to support it. See my full stmt: pic.twitter.com/C073yKWRWHAdvertisement— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) June 30, 2021
Ohio Republican Brad Wenstrup rejected the new investigation as “incomplete and insufficient” because it would not look into other incidents including the 2017 shooting at a baseball field that badly injured Republican Steve Scalise.
Ms Pelosi said she preferred that an independent panel lead the inquiry but Congress could wait no longer to begin a deeper look at the insurrection that was the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years.
Tensions have worsened in Congress since Mr Trump’s supporters laid siege, aiming to stop Congress’s certification of his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
A brief sense of shared outrage has given way to partisan politics and attempts among some Republicans to downplay the events of the day. Most Republicans have made clear they want to move on from the insurrection — and Mr Trump’s role — though many of them had fled the violent mob themselves.
Democrats expressed frustration with those Republicans who have complained that the investigation would be partisan after their party blocked the bipartisan panel.
“I think for some on the other side, nothing that gets to the truth will ever be good enough, because they do not want the truth,” said Rules Committee chairman Jim McGovern, who led the debate ahead of the vote.
The panel would be led by Democrats, with Ms Pelosi appointing a chairperson and at least eight of the committee’s 13 members. The resolution gives her a possible say in the appointment of the other five members as well, directing that they will be named “after consultation” with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.
Republican leaders are facing pressure to take the investigation seriously from police officers who responded to the attack, several of whom sat in the gallery and watched the debate. Dozens of officers suffered injuries that day as Trump supporters pushed past them and broke into the building to interrupt the certification of President Biden’s victory.
The spectators included Metropolitan Police Officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn.
Mr Fanone has described being dragged down the Capitol steps by rioters who shocked him with a stun gun and beat him. Mr Hodges was crushed between two doors, and Mr Dunn said rioters yelled racial slurs and fought him in what resembled hand to hand combat as he held them back.
Also in the gallery were Gladys Sicknick and Sandra Garza, the mother and partner of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who collapsed and later died after engaging with the protesters. He was sprayed with chemical irritants, but a medical examiner determined he died of natural causes.
