Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, garnered lots of press coverage after House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy named him to a House select committee on Jan. 6 even before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi evicted the Republican and Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., but there was little press on her eight choices, including Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Call it a pattern.
Of course, Pelosi’s most controversial pick — she named eight members to the 13- member panel — was a Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of two House Republicans to vote to create the Jan. 6 panel and one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach then President Donald Trump.
To recap, after McCarthy announced his five picks for House panel, Pelosi ousted Jordan and Banks because, she said, she was concerned about the two members’ statements and actions. Quoth Pelosi:
“The unprecedented nature of January 6th demands this unprecedented decision.”
McCarthy then announced that House Republicans — obviously not counting Cheney — would not participate in the investigation.
The New York Times ran this story about Jordan and Banks. Jordan wrongly argued that Trump had won the 2020 election and Banks questioned the legality of some of the votes cast.
For the record, I disagree with Jordan and Banks and do not want to encourage such magical thinking on the right.
That said, I wish the Gray Lady expressed similar interest in misinformation spread by Democrats, Schiff in particular.
The reptilian Democrat told MSNBC in March 2017 that he couldn’t “go into particulars but there is more than circumstantial evidence now” that Russian colluded with Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Quick someone, alert former Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Here’s a tweet by Jamie Raskin that’s even worse as Raskin makes completely unfounded claims about Trump being a Russian asset:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">There are 2 theories about Trump on the Hill: one says he’s a Russian intelligence asset being used by Putin unwittingly because he is a fool or knowingly because he has been compromised by blackmail. The other says he is a conscious Russian agent corrupted by decades of payoffs.</p>— Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepRaskin/status/1018987611791282177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 16, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
So if Schiff and Raskin can be on the Jan. 6 committee, why not Jordan and Banks?
Debra J. Saunders is a fellow at the Discovery Institute's Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership. Contact her at dsaunders@discovery.org.