If Republican leaders were to participate in this political stunt, it would change the House forever.
While Americans are struggling to put gas in the tank and food on the table, Democrats are busy weaponizing government to attack Republicans. Look no further than the Jan. 6 Select Committee investigation.
Democrats created the Select Committee last year and packed it with partisans. Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected Republicans’ chosen members, violating more than 232 years of House precedent, and also declined to appoint the required 13 members. These actions deprive the committee of balance and objectivity and raise questions about its legitimacy.
True to form, the Select Committee’s statements and actions have shown that it isn’t interested in a fair investigation. Democrats prejudged the outcome last year, declaring in their impeachment brief that President Trump was “unmistakably responsible” for the events of Jan. 6, 2021. Democrats have also accused their Republican colleagues of “sedition” and called us “traitors.”
With no effective check on its power, the Select Committee is trampling on fundamental Constitutional rights. It is investigating the political speech of private citizens and demanding access to their personal records and private communications. When disputes over the requests arise, the committee refuses to engage and seeks to punish. There is no presumption of innocence; instead Chairman Bennie Thompson declared citizens who invoke the Fifth Amendment are “part and parcel guilty to what occurred.”
Rather than operating openly, the Select Committee is working behind closed doors and selectively leaking cherry-picked information. When it has presented some evidence in public, the committee’s been caught deliberately altering documents—including a text message pertaining to one of us—to malign conservatives.
One would expect this sort of inquiry from a banana republic, not from the U.S. House of Representatives. By subpoenaing us and three other Republican members, the Select Committee is escalating its abusive tactics. This attempt to coerce information from members of Congress about their official duties is a dangerous abuse of power, serves no legitimate legislative purpose, and eviscerates constitutional norms. Just because members of Congress are responsible for writing the laws doesn’t give a select few license to subvert them.
In January, we sent the Select Committee letters in response to its request for interviews, raising good-faith concerns and seeking to protect the prerogatives of the House. Our letters went unanswered and unacknowledged for four months. The Select Committee now rushes to issue these unprecedented subpoenas in May, just in time for its pre-scheduled prime-time hearings next month.
And in case one doubts the political nature of this “investigation,” Rep. Adam Schiff sent a campaign fundraising email about the subpoenas before Republican members had even received them.
Even if the Jan. 6 Select Committee was acting in good faith, we have no relevant information that would assist in advancing its legislative purpose. Democrats know this because we told them in January. We told them we can’t attest to Speaker Pelosi’s failure to secure the Capitol in advance of Jan. 6. We can’t elaborate on former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund’s statement that a concern about “optics” contributed to the limited security response. And we can’t add to the bipartisan, comprehensive findings of the Senate investigative committee that were completed last year.
For House Republican leaders to agree to participate in this political stunt would change the House forever. Every representative in the minority would be subject to compelled interrogations by the majority, under oath, without any foundation of fairness, and at the expense of taxpayers. The American people deserve better than Democrats’ weaponization of its majority rule.
Mr. McCarthy, a Republican, is minority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Jordan, a Republican, represents Ohio’s Fourth Congressional District.
By Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan
