Donald Trump criticizes Nancy Pelosi on eve of first riot committee hearing

Donald Trump on Monday night questioned whether Nancy Pelosi will ‘investigate herself’, just hours before the first hearing of her January 6 select committee.

The former president released a lengthy statement asking whether the Democrat House Speaker will address who ‘didn’t want extra protection’ at the Capitol on the day of the riot and ‘who killed Ashli Babbitt?’

Trump also pushed Pelosi to look into the ‘vicious’ investigations into him – including the ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ probe and the ongoing criminal case into the Trump Organization by New York prosecutors – and his ongoing claims of voter fraud.

His latest reaction to the proceedings slammed as a ‘sham’ and ‘partisan’ by Republicans came as Democrats consider whether to compel him to testify in their probe.  

‘Nancy Pelosi is spending a great deal of time, effort, and money on the formulation of a Fake and highly partisan January 6 Committee to ask, “what happened?”‘ Trump wrote in the statement through his Save America PAC.

‘Will Nancy investigate herself and those on Capitol Hill who didn’t want additional protection, including more police and National Guard, therefore being unprepared despite the large crowd of people that everyone knew was coming?

‘Will Nancy and her Committee study the massive Voter Fraud that took place during the 2020 Presidential Election, particularly in swing states, that was the reason hundreds of thousands of people came pouring into Washington and, therefore, must be a big factor in the final Committee Report? Now would be a very good time to study the large scale Voter Fraud in our Presidential Election.

‘Will Nancy release the thousands of hours of tapes so we can see the extent to which ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter played a role, while also revealing ‘who killed Ashli Babbitt?’ A real and thorough investigation of this must be done—and what about all of the violence, murders, riots, and fires that took place in Democrat run cities throughout the United States by ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter, with virtually no consequence for this death and destruction?

‘Will Nancy look into the vicious partisan investigations of Conservatives and Republicans that are taking place by prosecutors all over the Country? The five-year investigation of me, and all that so many have been through, including the fake Russia Russia Russia charge, and including the local Democrat-controlled New York prosecutors who work around the clock to get President Donald Trump, while murderers, drug dealers, and human traffickers go free!’ 

The House of Representatives voted Monday night to kill a resolution from Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to get his picks on Nancy Pelosi‘s Capitol Riot Select Committee.

Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who many inside the GOP want to see punished for choosing to take their seats on the panel, voted against the measure with the vote finishing 218-197.

McCarthy’s resolution was the last bid to compel Pelosi to accept the five Republican members and allow them to be part of the investigation he has called a ‘sham’.

He withdrew all his nominations when Pelosi refused to seat Reps Jim Banks and Jim Jordan last week.

The vote came just hours before the first hearing was set to begin on Tuesday into the investigation into January 6.  

Cheney said on Monday that McCarthy was ‘childish’ for labeling her and Kinzinger, the only two members of the GOP on the January 6 committee, ‘Pelosi Republicans.’

‘We’ve got very serious business here. We have important work to do,’ she said to reporters on Capitol Hill.

Kinzinger told reporters on Monday that McCarthy ‘can call me whatever names he wants,’ before reassuring, ‘I’m a Republican.’

‘If the conference decided, or if Kevin decides, they want to punish Liz Cheney and I for getting to the bottom and telling the truth, I think that probably says more about them than it does for us,’ he continued in response to the House Minority leader suggesting there could be consequences for the duo.

McCarthy answered ‘we’ll see’ when asked Monday if he would punish Cheney of Wyoming and Kinzinger of Illinois for joining the Democrat-led January 6 select committee.

He called the duo of anti-Trump GOP lawmakers ‘Pelosi Republicans.’ 

When asked when he had last talked to them he told DailyMail.com, ‘Couldn’t tell you.’ 

The GOP leader is under pressure from some members of his Republican caucus to crack down on Cheney and Kinzinger, who joined the panel investigating the MAGA riot at the invitation of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 

A spokesperson for Kinzinger added, ‘It would speak volumes if he took away their committee assignments to ‘punish them’ for upholding their oath to protecting our democracy.’ 

McCarthy attended an event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Monday, marking the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It put him in the same venue as Pelosi, who he’s been arguing with over the formation of the 1/6 committee. Pelosi vetoed two of his Republican nominees to the panel and he pulled all his picks in return. 

The two didn’t interact during the event but McCarthy was spotted speaking to President Joe Biden afterward. 

Pelosi and McCarthy shared a terse phone call, CNN reported, after Pelosi nixed  Republican Reps. Jim Banks and Jim Jordan from serving.

‘What you’re doing is unprecedented,’ McCarthy said.    

The network reported that on the call voices were raised and McCarthy hinted that Pelosi’s decision would come back to haunt her. 

Pelosi had announced on Wednesday that she wouldn’t allow the two Republicans, both staunch allies of Donald Trump, to serve on the committee that will probe the January 6 Capitol riot.  

Both Jordan and Banks voted to overturn the election the day of the insurrection.  

Later Pelosi said she would appoint Kinzinger, a Republican Trump critic, to serve on the select committee instead. She announced Cheney’s appointment last month.

Putting the two Republicans on the panel allows Pelosi to tout any findings as bipartisan. 

‘She’s broken Congress. Then it just makes the whole committee sham and the outcome predetermined,’ McCarthy told reporters at the White House on Monday. 

Calls to punish Republicans investigating the Capitol riots have grown after Kinzinger accepted Pelosi’s offer to serve on the Jan. 6 committee on Sunday.

He is the second Republican and outspoken Trump critic to take a seat on the committee at the behest of the House Speaker, Cheney joined the body earlier this month. 

Kinzinger will join the other members at the committee’s first hearing on Tuesday. 

 McCarthy last week pulled his five picks, which were given to Pelosi when she created the group. The move came after the speaker rejected Jordan and Banks.

Now, GOP members beyond the hard-right Freedom Caucus are calling for party leaders to remove the pair from other committees.  

‘There’s a lot,’ one Republican told CNN about the push. ‘Supporting Pelosi’s unprecedented move to reject McCarthy’s picks was a bridge too far.’   

Pelosi told ABC News on Sunday morning that Jordan and Banks would ‘jeopardize the integrity of the investigation.’

Kinzinger agreed that the panel needed a ‘serious, clear-eyed non-partisan approach’.

‘Today, I was asked by the Speaker to serve on the House Select Committee to Investigate January 6th and I humbly accepted,’ the Illinois congressman wrote in a statement Sunday afternoon.

‘I’m a Republican dedicated to conservative values,’ he continued, ‘but I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution – and while this is not the position I expected to be in or sought out, when duty calls, I will always answer.

‘I will work diligently to ensure we get to the truth and hold those responsible for the attack fully accountable,’ he said in his Sunday statement.

Both Cheney and Kinzinger voted for Trump’s impeachment following the January 6 riot.

Kinzinger has been a vocal critic of the former president both on television and on social media. He strongly criticized his own political party, saying that the GOP is no longer focused on policy and has become all about ‘loyalty’ to Trump.

‘I think what I’m used to saying to any Republican that’s maybe kind of confused by the moment we’re in is policy doesn’t matter anymore. It literally is all your loyalty to Donald Trump. As I’ve said before, this is something that like echoes a little bit out of North Korea, where no matter what policy comes out, you’re loyal to the guy,’ he told NBC News’ Meet the Press last month.

Cheney was voted out of her No. 3 leadership role in the party and replaced by loyalist Elise Stefanik for continually calling out Trump on his election lies.  

There are no Trump supporters on the committee investigating the violent breach, which critics say was sparked by Trump’s calls to ‘stop the steal’ and ‘show strength’ during a rally that same day. 

McCarthy had previously warned freshman Republicans to look to Pelosi for future committee appointments if they accepted her invitation.

‘Plenty of people wondering the same things,’ another GOP member told CNN. ‘If they are accepting appointments from Nancy Pelosi rather than the GOP, haven’t they already effectively left? Perhaps they should ask Speaker Pelosi for committee assignments?’ 

McCarthy fumed after Kinzinger joined the panel, calling it not bipartisan –  just made up of people hand-selected by Pelosi who all share her same view that Trump is to blame for the Capitol attack.

‘Speaker Pelosi’s rejection of the Republican nominees to serve on the committee and self-appointment of members who share her pre-conceived narrative will not yield a serious investigation,’ McCarthy said in a Sunday statement after Kinzinger accepted a post on the panel.

He did not directly reference Kinzinger’s willingness to accept the speaker’s invitation.

‘The Speaker has structured this select committee to satisfy her political objectives,’ he added. ‘She had months to work with Republicans on a reasonable and fair approach to get answers on the events and security failures surrounding January 6. Instead, she has played politics.’

The California Republican said the Senate has already conducted successful bipartisan investigations that ‘should serve as a roadmap’ for the January 6 select committee.

‘Speaker Pelosi’s departure from this serious-minded approach has destroyed the select committee’s credibility,’ he insisted.

It is not clear if Pelosi will tap any other GOP members to serve on the committee, but she did say ‘other Republicans’ have expressed interest in joining the panel. 

ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos pushed Pelosi on when she will make an announcement.

‘Perhaps after I speak to Adam Kinzinger. But I’m not going to announce it right this minute,’ she said just moments before approaching the Illinois Republican.

‘You can say that that’s the direction I would be going on,’ she continued with a chuckle. ‘He and other Republicans have expressed an interest to serve on the select committee.’ 

Pelosi said she ‘wanted to appoint three of the members that Leader McCarthy suggested, but he withdrew their names.’

‘The two that I would not appoint are people who would jeopardize the integrity of the investigation. And there’s no way I would tolerate their antics as we seek the truth,’ she told ABC News on Sunday morning.

McCarthy had put up Jordan, Banks, Troy Nehls of Texas, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota and Rodney Davis of Illinois. 

Jordan, Banks and Nehls all voted against certifying the 2020 election for Joe Biden by citing fraud in certain states on January 6.

Pelosi, as House Speaker, was able to veto only two.

‘Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts,’ McCarthy said last week.  

‘Pelosi has broken this institution,’ he continued, while accusing the House speaker of an ‘egregious abuse of power.’

Pelosi defended her decision to reject Jordan and Banks, saying their ‘antics’ were in danger of getting in the way of finding the truth behind what happened on January 6.

She said both lawmakers had a history of making statements that would have made it impossible for them to display ‘balanced judgment,’ including blaming the Biden administration for events that unfolded before it had even formed.

‘It is my responsibility as Speaker of the House, to make sure we get to the truth on this, and we will not let their antics stand in the way of that,’ she said during her weekly press briefing. 

Republicans warn there will be ‘endless retaliation’, according to a Sunday report, as the House becomes further divided.

‘I didn’t think things could get more partisan in the House than they already were,’ a top Republican aide told the Washington Examiner. ‘But Speaker Pelosi’s decision to remove Republicans from the January 6th Committee just took things to an entirely new level.’

‘When Republicans take back the House, expect endless retaliation,’ the aide said.

The House currently sits at a 220-211 divide with Democrats holding the majority, but Republicans are putting all their efforts into flipping the body back to red in the 2022 midterms.

The Senate is split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote. 

The panel begins its first hearing Tuesday into the violence that left five people dead after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Congress as hey moved to certify the Electoral College results. It will hear from law enforcement officers who battled protesters.

Last week, Pelosi hit back against critics who accused her of being intent on taking down Trump.  

‘We’re there to get the truth, not to get Trump,’ she said spelling it out.

‘T-R-U truth. Trump that seems to be what the other side is obsessed with.

‘So as legislation allows I didn’t accept two of the five people were appointed, they had made statements and taken actions that I think would impact the integrity of the commission of the committee, the work as a committee,’ she said.

‘This is deadly serious. This is about our constitution, it’s about our country.’  

By way of example she cited a combative statement released by Banks last Monday in which he promised to use his role on the commission to investigate the response of the Biden administration to the riot.

‘There was no Biden administration on January so let’s not go into that,’ she said.

Republicans were prepared to focus their strategy on why Pelosi wasn’t more prepared for the attack.

‘There’s one fundamental question that I hope Democrats will actually answer and address and that is why wasn’t there a proper security presence that day?’ Jordan questioned after he was appointed by McCarthy.

‘And frankly, only the speaker can answer that question so let’s see if the Democrats bring that up,’ he added.

Pelosi’s spokesperson told DailyMail.com last Wednesday that the GOP strategy is ‘desperate’.

‘On January 6th, the Speaker, a target of an assassination attempt that day, was no more in charge of Capitol security than Mitch McConnell was,’ Drew Hammill said. ‘This is a clear attempt to whitewash what happened on January 6th and divert blame.’

He added: ‘I would hope the media would do better and treat this as the utter nonsense that it is.’

The GOP was also planning to highlight leftist political violence, including the 2020 summer riots and looting in response to police brutality.

‘The Democrats in the summer of 2020 normalized anarchy, they normalized rioting and looting,’ Jordan said. ‘So I think that’s an important element that we’ll have to point out.’

In his statement, after being named to the committee by McCarthy, Banks also promised to address questions being ignored by Democrats.

‘Even then, I will do everything possible to give the American people the facts about the lead up to January 6, the riot that day, and the responses from Capitol leadership and the Biden administration,’ he said. 

‘I will not allow this committee to be turned into a forum for condemning millions of Americans because of their political beliefs.’

Two days later he accused Pelosi of running from the facts.

‘I’m a sitting member of Congress and served my country in Afghanistan and the Speaker knows how hard I will fight for my country,’ he said.

‘We said all along that this was a purely partisan exercise by the Democrats and Nancy Pelosi’s rejection of me and Jim Jordan shows once again she is the most partisan figure in America today.’ 

The panel has been beset by partisan wrangling from the off. Last month, all but two Republicans opposed the select committee in a House vote.

Source: Daily Mail