Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said that House Republicans would be “pushing back” against the Jan. 6 Committee in an effort to tell the American people how the committee’s efforts have been “unconstitutional and illegitimate.”
She said Republicans would be countering the messaging from the panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol amid a series of nine primetime public hearings over the next few weeks, starting with one on June 9 at 8 p.m. Washington time.
“You will see us all over the airwaves, we’ll be setting the record straight, we’ll be telling the truth to the American people, sharing the facts, and also really pointing out how unprecedented and unconstitutional and illegitimate this committee is,” she said.
“We have lots of media bookings already set. I know that many of our members are going to shine in this moment. But similar to impeachment sham one, and really, impeachment sham two, just out there, every single day,” she said, equating the Jan. 6 panel to previous Democratic-led efforts to impeach former President Donald Trump on two separate occasions, which both resulted in Trump being acquitted.
“I’m going to stand up for my constituents and the American people ... to make sure that the facts are out there for the American people to know and expose what [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)] does not want the American people to know,” she told Breitbart.
She said Pelosi’s office is “the only office that is off limits” from the Jan. 6 panel’s investigation and noted that Pelosi has refused to produce documents related to the security posture of the U.S. Capitol.
“There were concerns about security that were raised with Speaker Pelosi’s office. She was concerned about political optics, and the Capitol was left vulnerable on that day,” Stefanik said. “The American people deserve to know why Nancy Pelosi isn’t releasing those documents and they deserve to know full transparency.”
The nine-member Jan. 6 panel has also been criticized for its apparent partisanship. The panel consists of seven Democrats and two Republicans—Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Cheney, both known for their strong opposition to Trump. Pelosi selected Kinzinger and Cheney after she refused to seat members picked by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters previously that the upcoming hearings “will tell the story about what happened” on Jan. 6.
“We will use a combination of witnesses, exhibits, things that we have—to the tens of thousands of exhibits we’ve interviewed and looked at as well as the hundreds of witnesses we deposed or just talked to in general,” he said at the time. “It will give the public the benefit of what more than a year’s worth of investigation has borne to the committee.”
Thompson has said that the committee plans to release a report on its findings in early fall.
