Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney voted in favor of creating a House Select Committee to investigate the events surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Cheney said a bipartisan independent commission “would have been the best way to address the dangerous assault on the institutions of our democracy,” but the bill that would have enacted that mechanism failed in the U.S. Senate after passing the House.
Cheney was joined by only one other Republican — Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — in voting for the House Select Committee.
The select 13-member committee will have subpoena power, will investigate “the facts, circumstances and causes relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack” according to the resolution.
Eight members of the committee will be named by the majority Democrat party while the other five members will be named with input from the minority Republican party.
The structure and the makeup of the investigating body would have been far better, Cheney said, if the bipartisan commission would have been created instead.
“Earlier this month, along with 34 other House Republicans, I supported the establishment of a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the attack of January 6th,” Cheney said in a statement. “As I’ve said before, that would have been the best way to address the dangerous assault on the institutions of our democracy.”
“I believe this select committee is our only remaining option. I will vote to support it,” she said.
Prior to today’s vote, Cheney spoke out for months in support of the creation of a bipartisan panel modeled after the 9/11 commission to obtain the facts about what happened in the lead-up to and on January 6th.
“It needs to really be bipartisan and really be populated with serious individuals who will take a clear-eyed look at what went on,” she said during a speech at the Reagan Institute earlier this year
While appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation in April, Cheney stressed that the investigation shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
“You just had 140 national security officials from Republican and Democratic administrations send a letter to Congress saying, ‘We need a commission’,” she said.
On Wednesday she again stressed the need for a non-partisan look at the events which resulted in the deaths of five individuals.
“This investigation can only succeed if it is sober, professional, and non-partisan. The threat to our democracy is far too grave for grandstanding or political maneuvering,” she said.”
