Top Senate Republicans are opposing a bipartisan proposal to create an independent commission to investigate the deadly January 6 Capitol attack and are instead moving to filibuster the bill because of their fear of how it will impact their campaigns. The Senate will vote on the bill tomorrow.
As Politico reported today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “warned Republicans at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday that regardless of tweaks to the bill, approving the commission could hurt the party’s midterm election election message.”
Despite a majority of Americans, including Republicans, supporting the independent bipartisan commission, McConnell and other Republican Senators are putting their political self-interest ahead of giving answers to the American people. Several Capitol Police officers and the mother of fallen Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick, have come out in support of the independent January 6 commission. According to Politico, Gladys Sicknick stated: “Not having a January 6 commission to look into exactly what occurred is a slap in the faces of all of the officers who did their jobs that day.”
The bill, after a bipartisan agreement on the details, would appoint five Democrats and five Republicans to serve as commissioners who would study why the Jan 6 attack occurred. The commissioners would put forth a report by December 31st. So far, only two Republicans, Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, are publicly supporting the bipartisan bill that passed the House 252-175 last week with 35 House Republicans voting with Democrats. However, with McConnell actively moving to block the bill, it is unlikely the bill will meet the 60 vote threshold.
Mitch McConnell’s attempt to use the procedural hurdle purely for political self-interest has a growing number of Senators and Members of the House clamoring for changes to the filibuster rule.
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