Rep. Jim Banks heavily criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her failure to hand over key documents related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, saying in a Monday interview that Republican lawmakers believe the severity of the riot was due to a “systemic breakdown and failure at the highest levels of the Capitol Police.”
The Indiana Republican, who is on a panel of GOP lawmakers that is unofficially investigating the riot, spoke with The Daily Signal following an Axios report headlined “GOP’s shadow Jan. 6 committee targets Capitol Police ‘negligence.’”
Banks criticized the article and strongly disputed any implication that Republicans are focusing negative attention on Capitol Police officers themselves, noting that Republicans believe it is the leadership of the police force that was at fault.
“We’re not attacking the Capitol Police, but we do believe strongly that there was negligence and a breakdown of leadership at the highest levels of the Capitol Police,” Banks told The Daily Signal.
Banks characterized the investigation by House Democrats’ Jan. 6 select committee as a “political witch hunt.” Banks said that both he and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, were “denied the opportunity to serve on the committee” because they questioned why Pelosi refused to turn over documents related to decisions made on the day of the riot.
“The breadcrumbs lead to the speaker’s office,” he told The Daily Signal, adding:
She’s covering something up, and the American people deserve to know what those documents say, but so far she’s refused to hand them over. The buck stops with her, and the question that deserves to be answered is why the National Guard wasn’t called to help protect the Capitol. Somebody made that decision.Members of the Democrat-led Jan. 6 committee continue to ignore vital questions related to Capitol security, Banks said, noting that Republicans have interviewed dozens of Capitol Police officers and others on this topic.
And I suspect that those documents in some way, shape, or form implicate the speaker of the house. She doesn’t want to release them because at the end of the day, no matter what those documents say, I imagine they deviate from the political witch-hunt narrative that Nancy Pelosi and [Rep.] Liz Cheney [R-Wyo.] have painted about Jan. 6.
“We’ve learned a lot and we’re nearing the end of our interview process,” the Indiana congressman said, promising that Republicans will publish a report containing key findings of their interviews and make recommendations for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, whom Republicans hope will be the next speaker of the House.
“We’ve found that we’ve had broad support from the United States Capitol Police officers, the rank-and-file officers who know that they deserve more and better from their leadership and who know that leading up to Jan. 6 and on Jan. 6, there were systemic breakdowns and failure at the highest levels of the Capitol Police that led to...
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2 comments:
Leadership in the congress, senate, and capital police is as trustworthy as gas station sushi that has a date of four days ago.
I wonder if the committee interviewed the cops that beat the woman to death? I wonder if they interviewed the cops that threw "hand grenades" that resulted in the death of two men? This, "it's not the rank-and-file; it's the leadership" is BS! If you're given an unlawful order, you don't obey it! Unless of course, you're just there for your pension.
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