WASHINGTON -- The House voted Wednesday in favor of creating an independent commission on the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, but the legislation has an uncertain future in the Senate as Republican leaders work to prevent the bipartisan investigation that is opposed by former President Donald Trump.
Democrats say an independent investigation is crucial to reckoning with what happened that day, when a mob of Trump's supporters smashed into the Capitol to try to overturn President Joe Biden's election victory. Modeled after the investigation into the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the legislation would establish an independent, 10-member commission that would make recommendations by the end of the year for securing the Capitol and preventing another insurrection.
The bill passed in the House 252-175, with 35 Republicans voting with Democrats in support of the commission, defying Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is trying to prevent defections among his own ranks, echoing McCarthy's opposition in a Senate floor speech Wednesday morning. Both men argued that the bill is partisan, even though membership of the proposed commission would be evenly split between the parties.
McConnell said he opposes the legislation because it is a "slanted and unbalanced proposal," a day after he said his members were open to voting for the plan but needed a chance to read the "fine print."
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In between those comments, Trump released a statement Tuesday evening to slam the bill, decrying it as a "Democrat trap" while urging McConnell and other GOP leaders to start "listening."
"It's not at all clear what new facts or additional investigation yet another commission could actually lay on top of existing efforts by law enforcement and Congress," McConnell said on the floor Wednesday.
The January insurrection has become an increasingly fraught topic for Republicans, with a growing number in the party downplaying the severity of the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years. While most Republicans voted against forming the commission, only a few spoke on the floor against it. And the small number of Republicans who backed the commission spoke forcefully.
"This is about facts -- it's not partisan politics," said Rep. John Katko of New York, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee who negotiated the legislation with Democrats. He said that "the American people and the Capitol Police deserve answers and action as soon as possible to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again."
Democrats grew angry as some Republicans suggested the commission was only intended to smear Trump. Several Democrats shared their memories of the insurrection, when rioters beat police, broke in through windows and doors and sent lawmakers running. Four of the rioters died, including a woman who was shot by police as she tried to break into the House chamber. A Capitol Police officer collapsed and died after engaging with the protesters, and two officers took their own lives in the days after.
"We have people scaling the Capitol, hitting the Capitol Police with lead pipes across the head, and we can't get bipartisanship? What else has to happen in this country?" shouted Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, on the floor just before the vote. He said the GOP opposition is "a slap in the face to every rank-and-file cop in the United States."
The vote was yet another test of Republican loyalty to Trump, whose grip on the party remains strong despite his election defeat. House Republicans removed Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., from their leadership last week for her criticism of Trump's claims of election fraud, installing a Trump loyalist in her place.
Cheney, in turn, suggested to ABC News that a commission could subpoena McCarthy to testify because he spoke to Trump during the insurrection.
"He absolutely should," Cheney said during the interview. "And I wouldn't be surprised if he were subpoenaed. I think that he very clearly ... said publicly that he's got information about the president's state of mind that day."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called McCarthy's opposition to the commission "cowardice." She released a February letter from the GOP leader in which he asked for an even split of Democrat and Republican commission members, equal subpoena power and no predetermined findings or conclusions. The bipartisan legislation accommodates all three of those requests, she said.
"Leader McCarthy won't take yes for an answer," she said.
GOP SUPPORT
The 35 GOP lawmakers who voted in favor of the commission represented a relatively modest but significant slice of the House Republicans, of whom 175 opposed the legislation.
All 10 Republicans who voted in January to impeach Trump for encouraging his supporters to march to the Capitol supported the commission. Most of the 35 Republicans backing the commission were moderates.
The 10 who backed impeachment included Katko and Cheney, Trump's most prominent House GOP critic, though she did not speak during Wednesday's debate.
A moderate and former prosecutor, Katko defended the proposed commission as a fair and needed step toward understanding the riot, how it happened and what security improvements the Capitol needs to prevent a future assault.
"I encourage all members, Republicans and Democrats alike, to put down their swords for once, just for once, and support this bill," Katko said before the House approved the measure.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who voted for the commission, said that Jan. 6 "is going to haunt this institution for a long, long time" and that a commission is necessary to find the truth about what happened. He recalled that he "heard the shouts, saw the flash-bangs, smelled the gas on that sorry day."
Arkansas' Republican delegation split over the House measure, with Reps. Steve Womack and French Hill voting in favor of the investigation and Reps. Rick Crawford and Bruce Westerman opposing it.
Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., a freshman lawmaker, took veiled shots at some members of the GOP.
Without mentioning names, Meijer said the attack occurred "with the encouragement of prominent elected officials." He said some who initially criticized the attack "have walked back their words or softened their speech."
Meijer added, "More troubling, there has been an active effort to whitewash and rewrite the shameful events of that day to avoid accountability."
Opposing the commission was Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind., brother of former Vice President Mike Pence.
"Hanging Judge Nancy Pelosi is hellbent on pushing her version of partisan justice complete with a handpicked jury that will carry out her predetermined political execution of Donald Trump before law enforcement officials have completed their investigation," Greg Pence said in a statement Wednesday.
The Indiana congressman was with the vice president during the Jan. 6 attack. They huddled together inside a Capitol office guarded by Mike Pence's Secret Service detail and later took an unknown evacuation route to a secure room in the Capitol complex.
IN THE SENATE
In the Senate, McConnell's announcement dimmed the prospects for passage, as Democrats would need at least 10 Republicans to vote with them. But Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed to force a vote on the bill, arguing that Republicans are "caving" to Trump.
Schumer said Republicans are trying to "sabotage the commission" and are "drunk" off Trump's claims that the election was stolen from him. That assertion, repeated by the mob as the rioters broke into the Capitol, has been rebuked by numerous courts, bipartisan election officials across the country and Trump's own attorney general.
As in the House, some Senate Republicans have suggested they will support the legislation.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said Tuesday that given the violent attack, "we should understand what mistakes were made and how we could prevent them from happening again." Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said he doesn't agree with McConnell that the bill is slanted toward Democrats and that "I'm inclined to support it."
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she supports the idea of a commission but that the House bill would need adjustments.
Others have pushed for their colleagues to oppose the commission. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the top Republican on the Senate Rules Committee, is working on a report with his Democratic colleagues that will include recommendations for security upgrades. He said an independent investigation would take too long and that "frankly, I don't think there are that many gaps to be filled in on what happened on Jan. 6, as it relates to building security."
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., cited concern in the caucus that the investigation could be "weaponized politically" in the 2022 election cycle.
"I want our midterm message to be about the kinds of issues that the American people are dealing with," Thune said. "It's jobs and wages and the economy, national security, safe streets, strong borders and those types of issues, and not relitigating the 2020 election."
LETTER'S RELEASE
Separately on Wednesday, aides to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., circulated a letter that they said was from a group of about 40 to 50 anonymous U.S. Capitol Police officers who had been speaking with the congressman.
"It is inconceivable that some of the Members we protect would downplay the events of January 6th," the letter reads. "It is a privileged assumption for Members to have the point of view that 'it wasn't that bad.' That privilege exists because the brave men and women of the USCP protected you, the Members."
The letter was quickly repudiated by Capitol Police leaders, who said the agency doesn't take any position on legislative matters.
Raskin said in an interview Wednesday evening that the officers approached his office with the letter and that they and their families have been traumatized about what happened on Jan. 6. Raskin said that "they can't believe there is dissension in the Congress" about the simple facts of the insurrection.
Information for this article was contributed by Mary Clare Jalonick, Michael Balsamo, Alan Fram, Lisa Mascaro and Nomaan Merchant of The Associated Press; and by Mike DeBonis, Jacqueline Alemany, Colby Itkowitz, Meagan Flynn and Marianna Sotomayor of The Washington Post.
