The ongoing hearings of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 incidents at the Capitol are "like the worst put-together reality TV show that we've seen come across the screen for several years," Rep. Matt Rosendale tells Newsmax.
"It's like watching a football game with one team out on the field," the Montana Republican said Thursday on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "You can pretty well predetermine what the outcome is going to be."
He also accused the committee of having "scripted a program" that Democrats will use in commercials against former President Donald Trump in the event he runs for president again in 2024.
"It's a very large waste of the taxpayer's money, and we're not seeing anything substantive come from this so-called hearing," said Rosendale. "At the same time, we've got all of these major issues facing the country. This has been the priority of the Democrats. It's quite unfortunate."
The congressman also panned comments made by one committee member, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who said Monday that "the attack on Jan. 6 was a direct and predictable result of Mr. Trump's decision to use false claims of election fraud to overturn the election and to cling to power."
"If it was so predictable, why is it that they didn't utilize the 20,000 National Guard troops that the president himself had authorized and offered to have up?" said Rosendale. "Why is it that the Capitol Police weren't better equipped? If we had prepared for the large gathering of people that came on Jan. 6, then no one would have even gone anywhere near the Capitol."
However, he said, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn't accept the extra support from the Capitol Police, and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser didn't accept the reinforcements.
"If that would have happened, we wouldn't even be having this conversation today," said Rosendale. "We wouldn't have had to endure months worth of our capital being fenced off so that the members of Congress had to fight through barbed wire just to get to work on a daily basis again."
Meanwhile, he said, more serious issues are happening in the country, including inflation, high gas prices, and people dying of drug overdoses, "most of that from fentanyl coming across the southern border," said Rosendale.
"The Democrats are doing absolutely nothing about these very important issues," he added.
In other matters, Montana has been hit hard by severe weather and rainfall, and Rosendale has co-signed a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to make a major disaster declaration about the state.
He said he'll be viewing sites Friday with Montana Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester, and that he's been communicating with county commissioners in the affected counties and with Gov. Greg Gianforte.
Supply chain issues are coming into play too, including accessing empty sandbags, said Rosendale, "so we just want to make sure that the red tape is removed and be able to deliver assistance to these communities as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, some roadways and bridges are washed out, said Rosendale, adding that Yellowstone National Park has suffered extreme damage as has Gardner, one of the entrance cities into the park.
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