BREAKING NEWS: Nancy Pelosi appoints Republican Rep. Liz Cheney to the Democrat's Capitol riot select committee - after GOP leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to punish party members who serve
Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has selected Republican Liz Cheney to serve on the select committee that will investigate the Capitol riot
Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday selected Republican Liz Cheney to serve on the select committee that will investigate the Capitol riot.
'We're very honored and proud that she has agreed to serve on the committee,' Pelosi said at her news conference Thursday when announcing news Cheney would join the panel.
Cheney voted to impeach Trump at his second trial when he was accused of insurrection over January 6 and voted for the creation of the committee.
'I am honored to have been named to serve,' Cheney said in a statement.
She was not at the event where Pelosi unveiled the committee members. The speaker said Cheney had a 'family matter' she was attending to.
'Congress is obligated to conduct a full investigation of the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814,' Cheney said in her statement. 'What happened on January 6th can never happen again.'
Earlier this year she was voted out as the GOP Conference Chair and replaced with Elise Stefanik.
Cheney's appointment came after a report emerged Thursday morning that Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened his party that if anyone accepted Pelosi's appointment, he will no longer assign them to any other committees.
The Wyoming congresswoman is the only Republican Pelosi chose for the committee. The other panel members include Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff, Zoe Lofgren, Pete Aguilar, Chris Murphy, Jamie Raskin and Elaine Luria.
McCarthy's threat to his party came during a closed-door meeting with freshman House Republicans on Wednesday, although it is directed at all GOP members, and was relayed to Punchbowl News by multiple people present at the meeting.
'I am not responding,' Pelosi said when asked about reported McCarthy threat. 'That is a matter for the Republican caucus.'
The appointment came after a report emerged Thursday morning that Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened his party that if anyone accepted Pelosi's appointment, he will no longer assign them to any other committees
THE CAPITOL RIOT SELECT COMMITTEE: SEVEN DEMOCRATS AND ONE REPUBLICAN
• Chair Bennie Thompson: Chair of Homeland Security Committee
• Chair Zoe Lofgren: Chair of Committee on House Administration
• Chair Adam Schiff: Chair of House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
• Rep. Pete Aguilar, House Administration and Appropriations Committees
• Rep. Liz Cheney, Armed Services Committee
• Rep. Stephanie Murphy, Armed Services Committee
• Rep. Jamie Raskin, Oversight and Judiciary Committees
• Rep. Elaine Luria, Navy veteran, Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees
'It's not political, so I'm not getting involved in any discussion of what goes on in the Republican caucus.'
Pelosi declined to offer specifics of her conversation with Cheney, where she offered the Republican a spot on the panel.
'The conversation resembled Congresswoman Cheney's public statements,' she said.
Those at the Republican meeting said the House Minority leader warned if any accept Pelosi's appointment they can get all their committee assignments from her form now on.
Republicans members get their committee assignments from Republicans – not from Democrats or any other entity.
Cheney, along with Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, voted for the creation and both also voted to impeach Donald Trump for 'incitement of insurrection' for the Capitol riot on January 6.
Although McCarthy could also move to strip members who accept the invitation of their committee assignments, that would be a radical step to make a point.
New York Republican John Katko, who originally supported a bipartisan commission, railed against the way Pelosi went about creating a committee to look into the January 6 events.
'I led the charge to create a January 6th commission that would be external, independent, bipartisan, and equitable in membership and subpoena power,' Katko said in a statement released Monday. 'The select committee proposed by Speaker Pelosi is literally the exact opposite of that.'
On Wednesday, the House voted 222-190 for a resolution that would create the committee.
'January 6 was not simply an attack on a building, but an attack on our very democracy: an attack on the peaceful transfer of power. It is imperative that we find the truth of that day and ensure that such an assault on our Capitol and Democracy cannot ever again happen,' Pelosi said on Thursday.
Cheney and Kinzinger were the only two Republicans who joined all 220 Democrats to vote in favor of the resolution. Nineteen GOP lawmakers abstained from voting while the remaining 190 voting against it.
The House previously passed a bill that would have formed a 9/11-style commission investigating the attack, but it failed to override a Republican filibuster in the Senate in May.
'I'm heartbroken that we don't have the bipartisan commission,' Pelosi also said.