WATCH: Republican Rejected From 1/6 Committee Admits He Wanted To Thwart Investigation

BY Steph Bazzle July 25, 2021

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was given the opportunity to help form a bipartisan committee to investigate the events of January 6th. Instead, he tried to appoint House members who Speaker Nancy Pelosi felt she must reject, because they would attempt to derail the work of the committee. Now, one of those rejected Republicans is admitting openly that he would have worked counter to the intent of the committee.

WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 21: (L-R) House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) attend a news conference on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to reject two of Leader McCarthy’s selected members from serving on the committee investigating the January 6th riots on July 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. Speaker Pelosi announced she would be rejecting Rep. Banks and Rep. Jordan’s assignment to the committee. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Representative Jim Banks (R-IN), along with Representative Jim Jordan (R-FL), was rejected for the January 6th Committee, resulting in McCarthy withdrawing all his picks in a snit. Now, Banks is appearing on Sunday morning shows to blame Pelosi, and claim that her purpose wasn’t a real investigation but support of a specific narrative. Still, even as he made this claim, he (perhaps inadvertently) admitted he would have fought against the purposes of the committee, trying to find a scapegoat.

the arsonists are calling for an investigation of the fire alarms pic.twitter.com/i1CQggP1vm

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 25, 2021

“We were prepared to ask questions that no one else has asked, and demand answers as to why the Capitol was vulnerable to an attack on January 6th. Why was there a systemic breakdown of security at the Capitol on January 6th? If we’re going to investigate January 6th, why not ask those questions?”

Notably, Republicans have complained about the new security measures put in place since January 6th, including metal detectors, so perhaps a focus on security failures is a bit disingenuous. Regardless, Banks makes it clear that he and Jordan would have pushed to focus on blaming security for not being prepared for a mob attack, rather than an investigation of the actual causes of that attack.