Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Newsmax Wednesday that the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot was nothing more than a “partisan sham” designed to go after former President Donald Trump rather than getting to the bottom of why the incident happened.
“This is impeachment 3.0,” Meadows said during the premiere of Newsmax's “Eric Bolling The Balance” Wednesday. “This is just a partisan sham; they have already drawn their final conclusions. In fact, they could write the final report right now.”
Jordan, one of two Republicans named to the committee that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected, agreed that the committee is only looking to smear the former president, or they would have accepted him and Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., on the committee and allow them to ask pointed questions about why the Capitol Police seemed so unprepared for the riot.
“This is completely partisan,” Jordan said. “The country sees it for what it is.”
Five people died and more than 100 more injured when a group of President Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to try and disrupt a joint session of Congress tallying the final Electoral College votes for the 2020 election.
Among those killed were Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes and died days later, and civilian Ashli Babbitt, who was shot to death by a different, unnamed Capitol Police Officer.
The House voted to impeach Trump for “inciting” the violence when he spoke to supporters at a rally earlier in the day.
The Senate voted to acquit the president on the charge.
Pelosi then pushed for an independent “9/11-type” commission to investigate the incident, but that effort was blocked by Republicans, leading her to form her own “select” committee.
Jordan and Banks were among five GOP members appointed to the committee by House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., but Pelosi objected to both Jordan and Banks.
McCarthy then withdrew all five names from consideration unless Pelosi approved the two.
Currently, there are only two Republicans on the committee, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., both of whom voted to impeach Trump in the House and were staunch critics during his administration.
Meadows said they could have had up to 10,000 National Guard troops at the Capitol on Jan. 6, that were previously authorized by then President Donald Trump to ensure order, but Pelosi did not deploy them.
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