OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The Democrat-led House committee investigating the incident at the U.S. Capitol last year is trying to force three more House Republicans to take part in their probe.
The committee is now going after GOP Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, and Ronny Jackson of Texas.
In statements, all three lawmakers said they would not cooperate with the committee’s requests for testimony and information.
“I will not be participating in the illegitimate and Democrat-sympathizing House Jan. 6 committee panel,” Biggs said. “The committee has been a sham since its origins. Its entire purpose is to destroy President Trump and his supporters, intimidate members of Congress, and distract Americans from real issues that are destroying this country. The committee operates with the same kind of bias present at the Salem Witch Trials. Everyone is guilty and must demonstrate their innocence. They are basing their witch-hunt on dubious media accounts.”
“At one time I would have voluntarily testified before the Nancy Pelosi Witch Hunt Committee provided the testimony was in public, the questioners were Congressmen, and the questions were limited to events related to January 6. But that time has long passed,” Brooks said. “I’ve already given numerous sworn affidavits and public statements about January 6. At this moment in time, right before an Alabama U.S. Senate election, if they want to talk, they’re gonna have to send me a subpoena, which I will fight.”
Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, who has refused to cooperate with the committee, has instead called for a probe into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s role last January.
Jordan previously called the probe a “political operation” aimed at stopping Donald Trump from running for president in 2024.
“There’s been subpoenas issued to 11 individuals, 11 American citizens who asked the government permission on an application to hold the Trump rally,” Jordan said.
“The government granted it and now the committee petitions them to ask them questions about exercising their First Amendment right to assemble,” he added.
“And why would they subpoena me? I didn’t do anything wrong — I talked to the president,” Jordan said. “I talk to the president all the time. I just think that’s — you know where I’m at on this commission — this is all about going after President Trump. That seems obvious.”
Continuing his criticism, Jordan said that “everyone in the country sees this as a political operation. This is designed to get after President Trump. Because they don’t want him to run again.”
Republican National Committee members have slammed the committee for targeting Republicans.
“The nominal Republicans on the committee provide a pastiche of bipartisanship, but no genuine protection or due process for the ordinary people who did not riot being targeted and terrorized by the committee,” said Richard Porter, a Republican National Committee member from Illinois. “The investigation is a de facto Democrat-only investigation increasingly unmoored from congressional norms.”
“We need to move on from that whole discussion and, frankly, move forward and get the House back in 2022,” said California Republican Rep. Mike Garcia.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy also declined requests from the committee, saying back in January that the panel’s objective was to damage its political opponents.
“And now it wants to interview me about public statements that have been shared with the world, and private conversations not remotely related to the violence that unfolded at the Capitol. I have nothing else to add,” he said.
