Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is planning to hold a vote this week that will determine whether to set up a bipartisan commission to probe the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, Politico reported.
Schumer, D-N.Y., took the first procedural step Tuesday evening to move forward on the commission by filing cloture on the motion, according to The Epoch Times.
"We all know the commission is an urgent, necessary idea to safeguard our democracy," Schumer said, emphasizing that, "we have to get it passed. Each member of the Senate is going to have to stand up and decide: Are you on the side of truth and accountability or are you on the side of [former President] Donald Trump and the big lie?"
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., however, cautioned that while Democrats hope the vote will be this week, "everything is subject to the amendment process," Politico reported.
The bill to set up the commission passed the House last week, but Senate Republicans are opposed to it, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterating concerns about it in a private GOP lunch on Tuesday and telling reporters afterward that the commission is "a purely political exercise that adds nothing to the sum total of information."
According to attendees at the lunch, McConnell, R-Ky., told his caucus that the report could be released in the middle of the midterm campaigns next year in an attempt to harm the GOP. In addition, Republicans also contend that an investigation is superfluous, because law enforcement is already looking into the matter, as well as separate probes from the Senate Rules and Homeland Security committees.
McConnell stressed that, "We think the American people, going forward, and in the fall of ’22 ought to focus on what this administration is doing to the country and what the clear choice is that we have made to oppose most of these initiatives. So I think this is a purely political exercise that adds nothing to the sum total of information. It doesn’t allow anyone to get away with anything. All of these aspects of it are being dealt with in one way or another already," the Epoch Times reported
Schumer dismissed these arguments, telling reporters on Tuesday, "I’m sorry that it may be bad politics for Republicans in their midterm campaigns, [but] the Democratic-led Congress is not going to just sweep Jan. 6 under the rug. The truth will come out," according to Politico.
At least 10 Republicans would need to vote with the Democrats for the bill to defeat a likely filibuster from the GOP, according to the Epoch Times.
Athough 35 Republicans in the House voted for the bill, there are so far only two in the Senate who have committed to support the legislation.
The proposed measure would create in the legislative branch an independent, 10-member commission to investigate "relevant facts and circumstances relating to the attack on the Capitol," and "evaluate the causes of and the lessons learned from this attack."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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