Former president Donald Trump is blaming House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for the House Select Committee’s public hearings on Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his role in the January 6 insurrection..
Trump blasted McCarthy’s decision to pulled all Republicans from the select committee, saying that he would have benefited from having equal representation on the panel investigating buildup to 6 January and the actual day of the riot.
“Well, I think in retrospect, I think it would have been very smart to put Republicans on the committee, and again, I wasn’t involved in it from a standpoint so I never looked at it too closely”, Trump told PunchBowl News. “But I think it would have been good if we had representation.”
McCarthy had initially named Representatives Jim Banks of Indiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, Troy Nehls of Texas and Rodney Davis of Illinois. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to seat Banks and Jordan over their potential involvement in the insurrection.
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In response, McCarthy pulled all of his choices from the select committee. Pelosi then nominated Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who voted to impeach Mr Trump for his actions on 6 January, to serve as the only other Republican alongside Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, whom she initially selected.
Now, Trump is lamenting that he doesn’t have any of his cronies to defend him in the Committee.
“I think it would’ve been far better to have Republicans. Banks and Jordan were great and would’ve been great to have them,” Trump said. “But when Pelosi wrongfully didn’t allow them, we should’ve picked other people. We have a lot of good people in the Republican Party.”
Earlier this week, Trump appeared for an interview with conservative talk show host Wayne Allyn Root and said that while he supported Mr McCarthy in his primary he had not endorsed him to be Speaker of the House. During the interview, Trump avoided discussing what he thought about the California Republican as Speaker.
“I don’t want to comment on that now”, he said. “But you and I will talk at some point in the future.”
