Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro Monday on Newsmax railed against House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for not including other Republicans on the special committee investigating the Jan. 6 incidents at the Capitol.
"What an idiot," Navarro said on Newsmax's "American Agenda."
"I mean, he plays checkers in a chess world at a critical time. He refused to put Republicans on that committee other than Liz Cheney, who's not a Republican, so we lost our opportunity to publicly press that advantage."
Republicans will take back the House in 2022, Navarro claimed, and "what comes around goes around."
The Jan. 6 committee has just two Republicans, Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois, both of whom House Speaker Nancy Pelosi picked herself.
McCarthy, R-Calif., in July pulled all five of his picks to serve on the committee after Pelosi rejected two of his picks, Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Jim Jordan of Ohio, both of whom are close allies of former President Donald Trump.
At that point, the minority leader also pulled GOP Reps. Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, and Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, all of whom Pelosi said she would approve.
Navarro on Monday said that when the committee set the "precedent" of issuing subpoenas against him, Steve Bannon, former chief of staff Mark Meadows, or former President Donald Trump, they are "weaponizing their investigative power."
"Don't do that, Democrats," said Navarro. "You're just ruining this republic."
Navarro over the weekend also said he is refusing to comply with a separate subpoena from another committee for documents related to the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus.
That subpoena was issued in November by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, as part of an investigation to determine whether Trump administration officials mishandled the federal response to the pandemic by interfering with its health agencies.
Navarro said in a letter to the subcommittee he would not cooperate because Trump told him to "protect executive privilege," and told Newsmax Monday that the former president has said in his case he's asserting full executive privilege.
"When the president asserts executive privilege, that's it," said Navarro. "Case closed."
He also took offense with a comment that Meadows has put his feet "firmly in stone" about the Jan. 6 committee.
"He waffled on this which I thought harmed our case," said Navarro. "For some reason, he thought he could negotiate with a partisan witch hunt. He blinked at one point."
Meanwhile, there are "22 investigations going on," and there are "no credible Republicans on either one of these committees that are pushing these investigations," said Navarro. "It's just pure politics."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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