Kevin McCarthy and Pelosi Republicans
Only one kind of R thanked police at Jan. 6 hearing
It’s sad watching House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy squander his position on a regular basis, but that’s where we are.
While McCarthy’s instinct after Jan. 6 was to denounce the violence and then President Donald Trump for encouraging, he later crumbled after talking with Trump, the author of the division. And his debasement didn’t end there.
McCarthy should be on the committee voicing his solidarity with the four heroes — Metro Police officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges, Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell — who risked their lives defending the Capitol as Congress prepared to vote to recognize the results of the 2020 election. Instead, he’s chosen the route of the weasel.
Ergo he appointed fellow weasels to the select Jan. 6 committee, including Rep. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, who seemed committed to turning the Tuesday hearings into a partisan food fight — opening the door for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reject the two House Rs and McCarthy to pull all of his picks.
How do we know they’re weasels?
Apparently, Banks thinks the GOP can’t take back the House unless they embrace Trump’s big lie and the violence that followed. Icky.
Early on, McCarthy didn’t pick GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger to serve on the committee, even though they would have offered balance.
It was Pelosi who chose Cheney, who Tuesday had a chance to say to the officers what any decent Republican who recognizes courage and duty would say:
“I would just like to express my deep gratitude for what you all did to protect us. It won’t be forgotten.”
There are too many Republicans who keep long lists of other Republicans whom they believe are not pure. You see it with Never Trumpers and you see it with the Trump base. A strong GOP leader finds a way to include both sides and steer members to where they should be — pro-police and against the thugs who gassed and beat police. McCarthy is not that leader.
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Debra J. Saunders is a fellow at the Discovery Institute's Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership. Contact her at dsaunders@discovery.org.
Come back to the Chronicle. They need someone like you. It's no longer a newspaper. It has made a very hard left turn and is part of the Democrat propaganda machine,