California Republican votes ‘no’ on Capitol riot committee after supporting earlier proposal
Rep. David Valadao voted Wednesday against creating a special Democratic-controlled committee to investigate the January 6 Capitol insurrection — after supporting an independent commission last month.
The proposal for the commission he supported would have been split between Democrats and Republicans and had an end of year deadline. The new panel, though, will be dominated by Democratic appointees and, Valadao said, “will only divide us further.”
Democrats can “draw out their witch hunt as long as it suits them. The American people deserve to know the truth about what happened that day, and now they will be stuck with soundbites and theatrics,” he said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would appoint all 13 members, though five would be named “in consultation” with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. Republicans have not said whether they will participate.
Valadao said after the vote that he believes that an independent, bipartisan, 9/11-style review “was the best-case scenario to find out the truth about the security failures on January 6.”
But now, he said, “We are stuck with the worst-case scenario — a hyper-partisan select committee driven by Speaker Pelosi that will certainly politicize what should be a serious investigation and definitely will not bring her failures to light.”
Valadao has shown a willingness to distance himself former President Donald Trump. Valadao was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach the former president in January, and has given campaign money to others who GOP members who supported impeachment.
Valadao called the January 6 insurrection “an attack on not only our legislative institution, but on our legislators themselves. The members of Congress who will sit on the select committee cannot be expected to investigate the tragic day they lived through firsthand with impartiality.”
Only two Republicans voted this time to create a special committee. The independent commission that Valadao and 34 other Republicans supported last month would have been similar to the special commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
He said at the time the independent commission was needed to “to remove politicization and shed light on what led to the attack and how members of Congress, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement officials can ensure this never happens again to our legislative branch.”
That effort passed the House but died in the Senate, where it fell six voters short of the 60 needed to cut off debate.
That commission would have had congressional Democratic and Republican leaders each choose half the members. It would have required a final report by the end of this year, well before the 2022 election.
After the Senate action, Pelosi vowed to have a congressional investigation, so she went ahead with the committee established Wednesday.
Valadao is considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable Republicans. He lost his seat to Democrat TJ Cox in 2018, then reclaimed it in 2020 by beating Cox with 50.4% of the vote. President Joe Biden won the district by 11 percentage points.
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