(FreedomBeacon.com)- The battle lines between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy were set this week after Pelosi used her dictatorial veto power to red-line two of the five Republicans McCarthy named to the partisan January 6 select committee.
In response to Pelosi axing Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN), McCarthy told reporters that he has given no thought to replacing Jordon or Banks. Instead, McCarthy said either all five of his picks be accepted, or he will assign nobody to the committee.
Pelosi, taking the bait, told reporters on Thursday that she would forge ahead with the select committee with or without Republican members.
It was a smart move on McCarthy’s part. Republicans have maintained that Pelosi’s select committee was nothing more than a partisan political show trial. Pelosi’s willingness to move ahead with a committee populated by virulent partisans like Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin and without input from McCarthy all but confirms it.
Pelosi would not say whether she would use her power to choose the addition five members herself to fill out the 13-member select committee. As she already appointed eight herself, the committee has a quorum, so choosing the other five would not be necessary to proceed.
And proceed they are. Speaker Pelosi told reporters that the committee is getting staffed and will be ready to begin on July 27 as scheduled.
Thanks to Pelosi deviously naming Republican Liz Cheney to the committee, she can continue with her claim that this is a bipartisan committee – which is precisely the talking point she used in her weekly press briefing on Thursday.
But it is bipartisan in name only – just as Liz Cheney is Republican in name only.
Cheney was one of two Republicans who voted in favor of Nancy’s January 6 Witch Hunt Committee. The other was Illinois Congressman and anti-Trumper Adam Kinzinger who, on Wednesday, told reporters that he believes the committee’s investigation “can be valid still.”
The over-eager press has been pushing Pelosi to assign Kinzinger to the committee in order to have the complete set of anti-Trump Republicans on board. However, Pelosi has not said whether or not she would do that.
