WASHINGTON — House Republicans are sticking beside Kevin McCarthy despite former President Donald Trump’s attacks on the minority leader’s decision to pull GOP members from the Jan. 6 committee.
McCarthy should have tapped other Republicans for the panel after Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of his initial appointments, Trump told Punchbowl News this week. “The Republicans don’t have a voice,” Trump lamented. Last week, he told the far-right podcast host Wayne Allyn Root that “the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves” and called McCarthy’s decision to pull GOP members “bad” and “very, very foolish.”
Trump’s repeated complaints about McCarthy’s handling of the Jan. 6 appointments may stem from his frustration that the committee’s work has seized the nation’s attention. Fifty-eight percent of Americans, including a majority of Republicans and independents, are following news from the committee “very” or “somewhat closely,” according a Quinnipiac poll released this week. Unlike most congressional hearings, during which every member is allotted speaking time, the questioning in each Jan. 6 hearing is led by a single member of the committee. The partisan back-and-forth that characterizes many such hearings is absent, allowing committee members and witnesses to present a coherent, largely uninterrupted story of the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
