House Speaker Pelosi Names Liz Cheney to Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Committee

WASHINGTON—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) selected GOP Rep. Liz Cheney as one of her picks for the select committee looking into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, putting a leading Republican critic of former President Donald Trump on the panel.

Mrs. Pelosi said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.) will chair the committee. He will be joined by Ms. Cheney as well as Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D., Calif.), Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), Pete Aguilar (D., Calif.), Stephanie Murphy (D., Fla.), Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) and Elaine Luria (D., Va.).

“We’ll do our job, we’ll do it according to the oath we took as members of Congress. But more importantly, we have to get to the bottom of finding out all the things that went wrong on Jan. 6,” said Mr. Thompson.

The bill establishing the committee gave Mrs. Pelosi eight slots, with an additional five for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) to select, subject to consultation with Mrs. Pelosi.

House GOP leadership has opposed the formation of the committee, calling it a political exercise and pointing to ongoing law-enforcement probes. In a press conference Thursday, Mr. McCarthy declined to say whether or when he would appoint members, while also criticizing Ms. Cheney for accepting a committee assignment from the Democratic leader.

“It was shocking to me,” he said of Ms. Cheney’s decision. “If a person is a Republican, they get their committee assignments from the Republican conference. For somebody to accept committee assignments from Speaker Pelosi, that’s unprecedented,” he said.

“It would seem to me, since I didn’t hear from her, maybe she’s closer to her than us. I don’t know,” he added.

Read More (...)