WASHINGTON — The effort to create an independent commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol passed in the House 252-175. It now moves to the Senate where its chances are uncertain amid Republican opposition.
Thirty five Republicans joined Democrats in getting the bill through the House on Wednesday but no Kentucky Republicans were among them.
After the January 6 siege at the Capitol, Bowling Green Republican Brett Guthrie took to the House floor to denounce those who stormed the building and to call for a bipartisan commission to investigate the uprising.
“The goal is to find the facts so that this can never happen again,” he said in January.
On Wednesday, Guthrie joined every other Republican in Kentucky's delegation in voting against the creation of the bipartisan commission, rejecting a deal brokered by a fellow Republican, Rep. John Katko of New York.
The commission would include five Democrats and five Republicans who do not serve in Congress. Top leaders from both parties would have to approve of subpoenas. The commission would have until the end of December to complete their report. Five people died in the melee and 140 law-enforcement officials were injured.
At a news conference Thursday, Spectrum News 1 asked Lexington Republican Andy Barr why he voted against the formation of the commission.
“I worry that the structure of that commission was politicized. I don't like the fact that it was one party staffed and look we have ongoing investigations, the Department of Justice has over 400 ongoing charges against individuals,” Barr said. “The bottom line is, we need an apolitical nonpartisan response to this and my personal view is if you want to investigate political violence, you should not be excluding political violence on the baseball field, a few years ago that almost killed several of our colleagues."
The other Kentucky Republicans who voted down the commission are Rep. Thomas Massie, Rep. Hal Rogers and Rep. James Comer.
Louisville Congressman John Yarmuth, the only Democrat representing the Commonwealth in Washington, was the sole Kentucky member to support the creation of the panel.
“They've done something very cynical, which is forced Democrats to proceed without their cooperation in what should be bipartisan analysis of what happened on January 6, so that they can discredit it as a partisan process,” Yarmuth said.
When asked by Spectrum News 1 about the concerns from Republicans that the investigation will amount to a mudslinging platform against former President Donald Trump and Trump’s supporters, Yarmuth said, “I’m tempted to say let the chips fall where they may but I think, because of the way this was negotiated, because of the willingness of Speaker Pelosi and our leadership to basically agree to exactly what the Republicans wanted, they've minimized that potential.”
Kentucky's senior Senator Mitch McConnell had said he was open to supporting a 9/11 style panel but on Wednesday argued the proposal was unnecessary because there are bipartisan investigations underway at the committee level in the Senate.