(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is apparently considering a surprise appointment to the commission she’s forming to investigate the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol building.
This week, a Pelosi aide said the speaker was considering a House Republican as one of her appointees to the panel, according to a Politico report. The panel will be led by Democrats after Congress didn’t pass a bipartisan measure to create a panel.
The panel Pelosi created will consist of 13 members. The GOP will get to choose five, and Pelosi herself will select the remaining eight members.
At this point, the aide said Pelosi hasn’t settled on which member of the GOP she would appoint to the panel. But, she apparently is keen on appointing one member of the Republican Party of her choosing so it doesn’t come off as “overly partisan.”
If Pelosi were to move forward with choosing a Republican as one of her selections to the panel, it would be close to an even split. There would be seven Democrats serving on the panel and six Republicans in that situation.
A strong possibility for the selection is Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney. For Pelosi, Cheney would represent a symbolic selection as a Republican who also has taken a stance against former President Donald Trump in the past.
Specifically, Cheney voted to impeach Trump following the January 6 attacks, and she’s been outspoken against the pro-Trump wing of the House GOP. That ultimately led to her being removed from GOP leadership in the House.
Cheney wouldn’t comment on whether she would like to serve on the panel. However, she did say she hasn’t spoken to Pelosi at all about the panel.
On the other side of the coin, many Democrats are fearful that Republicans will choose a more outspoken conservative as one of their picks to the panel as a way to get back at liberals for pushing forward with the investigation.
Republican Andy Biggs, a representative from Arizona, said he wouldn’t participate directly in the investigation because he opposes the panel. However, he made a suggestion on who would make a good pick:
“If you’re going to do it, I can’t think of anybody better than somebody like a Marjorie Taylor Greene. She doesn’t have a committee; she could put a lot of time and effort into it.”
That selection would be a huge retaliation move for Republicans, after Democrats removed Greene from all of her committee assignments.
The panel that Pelosi and other Democrats have created is going to investigate the attacks on the Capitol as well as evaluate lessons learned from the various security failures at the building. The committee will be given subpoena power.
Pelosi issued a statement on the formation of the commission, and took the chance to take a shot at the leader of the GOP in the Senate in the meantime. The statement read:
“Senate Republicans did Mitch McConnell a ‘personal favor’ rather than their patriotic duty and voted against the bipartisan commission negotiated by Democrats and Republicans. But Democrats are determined to find the truth.”
