GOP defections over Jan. 6 commission deliver rebuke to McCarthy

Source: Politico | May 19, 2021 | Melanie Zanona, Nicholas Wu and Olivia Beavers

Ultimately, 35 Republicans joined Democrats in approving the commission.

House GOP divisions were on full display Wednesday as dozens of Republicans broke with their party leadership and former President Donald Trump to support a proposed commission investigating the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol.

The measure, which would task a bipartisan 10-person commission with delivering a report on the causes and facts of the insurrection by the end of the year, passed the House by a 252-175 vote with every Democrat and 35 Republicans in support.

It now heads to an uncertain future in the 50-50 Senate, where Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’ll oppose the legislation. Schumer: ‘I will put the January 6 commission legislation on the floor of the Senate for a vote. Period’

The big bipartisan vote was a major rebuke to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who worked hard to minimize the brewing rebellion in his ranks over the commission. During the vote, McCarthy huddled in the back of the chamber with his staff, watching the vote tally tick upward as Republican after Republican registered their “yes” vote.

McCarthy’s handling of his party’s internal divisions this week has revealed potential weaknesses in his leadership style — and offered a preview of how the California Republican might run the House one day.

McCarthy initially empowered one of his allies, moderate Rep. John Katko of New York, to cut a bipartisan deal with his Democratic counterpart on an independent, 9/11 style commission to investigate the deadly Capitol riots. But when Katko ultimately struck an agreement, which included most of McCarthy’s demands, the GOP leader balked at the plan.

Internal debate then swirled among House Republicans over whether to formally whip the measure. Whipping against a bill negotiated by one of their own would have been largely unprecedented, so GOP leadership decided against it. But once it looked like dozens of Republicans might break ranks, McCarthy grew nervous about the prospect of defections and took more informal steps to build opposition to the bill, multiple GOP sources said.

Further complicating the dynamics for McCarthy, the conservative wing in the House Freedom Caucus informed him on Monday evening they were staunchly opposed to the commission, and Trump came out against it Tuesday evening.

McCarthy has found himself in a difficult position as he tries to balance the various factions in his conference while also mollifying the former president down in Mar-a-Lago — and he’ll need support from all those corners to achieve his dream of becoming speaker should the GOP retake the House next year. On the far right, lawmakers complained that McCarthy should have whipped against the bill from the beginning and were angry that Katko, who voted to impeach Trump, was in charge of getting a deal in the first place.

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