Nancy Pelosi’s Adam Kinzinger power play

| 2:57 pm EDT July 22, 2021
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy thought he was being smart by picking obvious non-starter Jim Jordan for the January 6th committee. He was surely hoping that once Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi vetoed Jordan, she’d let the other four unsuitable picks slide, including vile extremist Jim Banks. But Pelosi rejected Jordan and Banks, prompting McCarthy to throw a tantrum and withdraw all five of his picks.

This means Pelosi can basically do whatever she wants in terms of filling out the rest of the committee. The only caveat is that she can’t hand McCarthy and Trump the opportunity to argue to voters in the middle that the committee is partisan. So accordingly, there must be some Republicans on the committee.

Pelosi already previously added outspoken House Republican Liz Cheney to the 1/6 committee. Now CNN is reporting that Pelosi is considering also adding House Republican Adam Kinzinger. This would be a real power move. She’d have multiple House Republicans on the committee, both of whom are fairly high profile and known to be no friend of the Democrats, but who could both be counted on to take their roles seriously.

It gets even more interesting when you throw in the fact that former House Republican Barbara Comstock said on CNN today that she’s been “talking to people” about potentially serving on the committee. Comstock also said she hopes that Kinzinger and former House Republican Denver Riggleman end up on the committee.

If this really is where Pelosi is heading, then the January 6th committee would have six Democrats plus Republicans like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Barbara Comstock, and Denver Riggleman. The Democrats would have majority control, but several Republicans would also have a voice. The committee would then be set up to do a very honest job with its investigation, while making it difficult for McCarthy and Trump to argue that the committee is partisan.