(Presidentialwire.com)- In advance of taking over control of the House come early next year, Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the Republican Party in the lower chamber, sent a letter to members of the select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot demanding that they preserve all transcripts and records related to their work.
McCarthy also promised that the GOP would hold hearings in 2023 on the failures of security that led to the U.S. Capitol building being breached that infamous day.
Ever since it became official that the Republican Party would take control of the House in the next Congress, party members have clearly stated that it would be their priority to investigate the Biden administration on many fronts — including potential investigations into President Joe Biden himself as well as his son Hunter Biden.
McCarthy, who is angling to try to become the Speaker of the House, is signaling to the Democrat-led special committee — and to many members of the Democratic Party in the House — that the GOP is going to look to change the narrative that the liberals trotted out over the past two years on a very public stage.
As he wrote in his letter to the special panel:
“It is imperative that all information collected be preserved not just for institutional prerogatives but for transparency to the American people. The American people have a right to know that the allegations you have made are supported by the facts.”
Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, who chaired the select committee, said on Wednesday that he hadn’t seen the letter McCarthy sent the committee yet. However, he did say that the panel was planning to preserve all of the documents that were produced as part of its investigation. He said:
“We will do our work. We will end December 31. If he wants to conduct whatever he wants as speaker, it’s his choice.”
He also added that:
“[McCarthy] had a chance to have members on the committee, he had a chance to come and testify before the committee. So, I think the horse has left the barn.”
What he was referring to was the fact that McCarthy was subpoenaed by the select committee, but he chose not to comply with it.
McCarthy hasn’t signaled that he would want to create a new January 6 special panel that would be led by Republicans. Some members of his party have suggested that he do so, but he hasn’t said that’s a priority of his just yet.
That being said, it’s likely that McCarthy would allow members of the GOP in the House to re-investigate or re-litigate some of the investigation that the Democrat-led special committee already conducted. He’s trying to angle to become the next Speaker of the House, but it’s not a foregone conclusion that he’ll be able to successfully do that.
For his part, Thompson reiterated that the panel doesn’t plan to just preserve everything it collected and produced during its investigation, but it plans to release much of it to the public once it produces its final report.
