Banks unload on Pelosi and pledge to get answers on January 6 via the GOP panel

Representative Jim Banks pledges not to give up on investigating the security breaches that led to the Jan.6 attack on Capitol Hill despite President Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Firing him on Wednesday.

Pelosi announced on Wednesday that she was rejecting two of the five selections of parliamentary minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) To sit on the committee, with the California Democrat also vetoing Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), another vocal ally of former President Trump.

McCarthy ultimately chose to refuse to place Republicans on the panel – which is tasked with investigating the deadly riot, when a pro-Trump mob attempted to disrupt the certification of election results – claiming they would move forward in their own investigation.

Banks (R-Ind.), Who was chosen by McCarthy to serve as a prominent member of the Jan.6 select committee, said Pelosi’s decision proves the Democrats’ intentions were politically motivated.

“It really made me angry. I served my country in Afghanistan and she says I’m not ready to play a serious role in this January 6 committee, ”he told The Post on Wednesday.

“But it just shows that it was never a serious effort on their part, it is a political witch hunt.” They want to talk about Donald Trump, dragging Republican members of Congress through the mud and attacking 75 million people who voted for Donald Trump. ”

McCarthy confirmed to The Post that he plans to select Banks to lead the separate GOP panel.

Banks alleged that Pelosi and the Democrats on the committee were reluctant to consider potential shortcomings that could hurt the president, with Republicans questioning whether she played any role in delaying the National Guard deployment that day.

“When I walked out the door, the minute Kevin McCarthy asked me to do this job and I rolled up my sleeves and started digging into the real questions that no one asked, that Democrats do not want to respond to why the Capitol was vulnerable on January 6 when we had real intelligence three weeks ago and we did nothing to prepare for it, ”he said.

“Democrats don’t want to talk about it because at the end of the day, the higher you go up the food chain, the closer you get to Nancy Pelosi, and that scared Nancy Pelosi and that’s why she rejected Jim Jordan and me. ”

Democrats have vehemently denied that Pelosi played a role in the delay in responding for additional law enforcement to provide support to Capitol Hill police on the day of the attack, arguing that Republicans targeting the president are trying to whitewash the severity of the riot.

” January 6th^e, the Speaker, the target of an assassination attempt that day, was no more in charge of Capitol Hill security than was Mitch McConnell. It’s a clear attempt to whitewash what happened on January 6^e and deflect the blame, ”Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said in a statement.

“The president believes that security officials should make security decisions. The President immediately signaled his support for the National Guard deployment when presented with this recommendation on the afternoon of January 6. Public testimony confirms that the President was not informed of any request for such a deployment before that date. ”

The banks accused Democrats of avoiding calling certain witnesses who could provide critical information, targeting Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), The chairman of the select committee appointed by Pelosi, for allegedly not having been open to suggestions from the GOP. “I met earlier today with the head of the Capitol Police Union, which represents members of the Capitol Police base. They [the select committee] I don’t want him to appear on Tuesday, ”he said.

“I wrote a letter this morning, waited to send it to him – but I called Bennie Thompson yesterday and asked him if the Republicans would have a chance to provide a witness and he hemmed and hauled. He was very shaky on the phone, and looking back I realized that was because we were immediately on a lane that they were very uncomfortable with.

The Indiana Republican said that in addition to asking questions about witnesses, Thompson failed to respond to his multiple requests for information about the resources that would be allocated to the minority party during the investigation.

He said he believed Pelosi’s choices to sit on the panel – which include Reps Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) And Elaine Luria (D-Va.) And GOP Rep Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) – were strategically chosen to fit a narrative. The banks took a hit on Cheney for his decision to flip party lines and accept Pelosi’s offer, a move that drew a strong reaction from his GOP colleagues.

“I asked him [Thompson], will Republicans have resources for staffing, he hemmed and haunted about it. I asked him if we could delay the hearing for next week so that we have more time to prepare since they had not yet named our names and he was hesitant about that, ”he said.

“He doesn’t seem like such a serious leader, to be serious you should share an effort like this and come up with something substantial or meaningful at the end of the day. And I think that’s because Pelosi picked people to be on this panel who are going to do what she tells them to do and that’s why she picked Liz Cheney.

Cheney, an enemy of the GOP Trump, upheld her decision to sit on the panel, saying “she has opposed two, one of whom may well be an important witness to the events leading up to this day – which have leads to January 6. The other, who disqualified himself by his comments, especially over the past 24 hours, demonstrating that he does not take it seriously.

Thompson’s office declined to comment.

Leading Republicans initially pushed for the scope of the investigation to go beyond the Jan.6 attack, with a significant number of GOP lawmakers citing this as the reason for their vote against a bipartisan 9/11-style commission. in June.

Banks said he hoped the GOP investigation – which should include Jordan, Representatives Rodney Davis (Illinois), Kelly Armstrong (SD) and Troy Nehls (Texas) – to investigate a range of cases of political violence. It’s unclear whether the panel will expand beyond the first five lawmakers selected to sit on the select committee.

“We are not giving up. These are questions that deserve answers and we are still members of Congress who can demand answers to serious questions that Democrats do so far. paid no attention to it.

“If you want to study what happened on Capitol Hill, you have to study the political violence that has taken place in major cities across the country. And I think you have what happened on Good Friday with the Capitol policeman who was killed by a left-wing extremist, ”he said.

“I think this all deserves attention, because again it comes down to leadership and protocols. And I’m going to tell you what the head of the Capitol Police Union told us today, January 6, the Capitol Police leadership did not prepare them for what was going to happen even though they had three weeks to prepare with legitimate intelligence, ”Banks said.

“They didn’t train them for what was going to happen on January 6th. They didn’t equip them for what was going to happen on January 6, so why aren’t we talking about it? It’s serious.”