Pelosi says other Republicans “expressed interest” in a Jan. 6 select committee

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WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that some Republican lawmakers have “expressed an interest” in serving on the select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the US Capitol after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to withdraw his selections from the committee.

Pelosi did not say if she would appoint other GOP lawmakers to the select committee on Jan. 6, but when asked if she would take the call about adding more members to the committee, she said Democratic leadership and the lawmakers who chose her to work together.

While the California Democrat did not reveal who might be under consideration to join the select committee, she said “some of them have expressed interest.”

A former Republican congressman, Denver Rigleyman of Virginia, is under consideration for an employee position on the select committee, a familiar source told CBS News. He will not “sit” on the committee, because only current lawmakers can do so.

Rigelman, who served one term in the House of Representatives, was at the Capitol on Thursday.

The House of Representatives voted last month to create a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 rioting at the Capitol after Senate Republicans blocked an effort to establish an independent commission to examine the attack. The committee is made up of 13 members — eight appointed by Pelosi and five chosen by McCarthy, though the speaker has the power to overrule the Republican leader’s choices.

The attack on the US Capitol is more

Pelosi exercised that veto on Wednesday, when she announced that she would reject two Republican lawmakers handpicked by McCarthy, Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana and Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, over statements they made about the Capitol attack. McCarthy chose Banks as a prominent member of the committee.

The California Democrat said she had no objection to McCarthy’s three other choices, Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota and Troy Niles of Texas.

“The unprecedented nature of January 6 demands this unprecedented decision,” Pelosi said.

In response to the speaker’s move, McCarthy threatened to withdraw all five Republican picks from serving on the select committee if Pelosi did not reverse course.

“Republicans will not be a party to their sham operation and will instead continue our investigation of the facts,” he said.

Pelosi was named a congresswoman, Congresswoman Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, by Pelosi, along with seven Democrats. Cheney defended the spokesman’s decision to remove Jordan and Banks from the panel, saying Wednesday that McCarthy “tried to prevent the American people from understanding what happened” on Jan. 6.

The House speaker did not say if she considered another GOP lawmaker criticizing former President Donald Trump, Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, for a spot, but told reporters that his military service “is of course an advantage in what we have to do.” Democratic Congressman Benny Thompson of Mississippi and chair of the select committee said Kinzinger is “the kind of person we’d like to have” on the committee.

Cheney and Kinzinger were among the 10 House Republicans who joined Democrats in voting to impeach Trump for his role in the January 6 attack.

The Jan. 6 select committee is scheduled to hold its first hearing on Tuesday with officers from the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department. The committee has already appointed staff, and Thompson told reporters there was discussion about appointing Republicans to serve on the committee.

Aaron Navarro contributed to this report

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