Rep. Greg Steube on Newsmax Thursday slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's creation of a committee to investigate the Jan. 6 incidents at the Capitol as being "100% partisan," and said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has threatened to strip Republicans from their committees if they serve on the panel — which McCarthy has denied.
"The entire creation of this committee is obviously 100% partisan," Steube, R. Fla., said on Newsmax's "National Report."
"It's Pelosi's attempt to continue this discussion and attacking (former President Donald) Trump and the people that were there that day and all the protesters that were there, even those that didn't come into the Capitol."
The committee isn't needed, said Steube, because the FBI and D.C. Metro police have been investigating it and about 500 people have been arrested.
And as far as McCarthy, Steube said that "the minority leader stated that any Republican that goes and serves and agrees to serve on this committee will be stripped of the committees that they currently serve on. So certainly Kevin Mccarthy feels very strongly about Republicans serving on this completely partisan committee."
McCarthy, though, shortly after Steube's interview denied that he threatened to strip anyone from their committee assignments, but said he did find it unusual that Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., would agree to serve as the lone Republican on the Democrat-led group that was convened by Pelosi.
"Let me be very clear, I'm not threatening anybody with committee assignments," the California Republican told reporters after Pelosi announced the committee.
Two GOP sources who spoke with CNN said McCarthy during a Wednesday meeting with freshman members of his caucus had threatened to strip members from committee assignments who accepted an offer from Pelosi to join her select committee.
Meanwhile, Steube said Pelosi and other Democrats want to use the committee and its findings as a weapon in the 2022 midterm elections.
"We need to keep focusing on how ridiculous this is," said Steube. "Was there a partisan commission that was instituted to investigate the shooting where Rep. (Steve) Scalise was shot and five other people were shot? No, there wasn't because that was a Democrat, a self-proclaimed Bernie Sanders supporter."
In addition, there are no investigations going on into last summer's Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots, said Steube.
"We need to keep telling the American people how ridiculous this is and how it's completely partisan so they can see it and not hear from the mainstream media that Republicans are just saying no to a committee," said Steube. "The committee makeup is eight Democrats to five Republicans. So even if there was something that the Republicans wanted to offer, they're going to be outvoted by the Democrats."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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