"Every Republican" should denounce what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "stacked the committee" she has called to investigate it, former Rep. Pete King told Newsmax Wednesday.
"It was terrible. It's indefensible," the New York Republican told Newsmax's "National Report" about the events at the Capitol. "On the other hand, we also have to look into what was done as far as safety precautions beforehand, and that's why we need a real investigation. Not this. This is contrived."
Several Republicans have dismissed the committee's first day of testimony, when four police officers told members of Congress what they experienced on Jan. 6, as "political theater," and King said that opinion is because the committee is not represented in a balanced way.
"(Reps.) Jim Banks and Jim Jordan provided the balance that is needed," King said, referencing the two Republicans that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy wanted on the panel but who were vetoed by Pelosi.
After Pelosi rejected Banks and Jordan, McCarthy pulled back his other picks for the committee. The speaker had already appointed Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and later added Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.
Cheney and Kinzinger are vocal opponents of former President Donald Trump and voted to impeach him on charges of inciting an insurrection in connection with the Jan. 6 attacks.
King added that he thinks the Democrats on the committee used the officers who testified to show the "sorrow and anguish of what happens to cops," but last summer, during the Black Lives Matter protests, "they would call them stormtroopers."
"None of them came forward to defend the cops when they were being hit with bricks and rocks and being killed, being spat on all over the country from one end to the other during the race riots, the Black Lives Matter and the (race) riots of December 2020," said King.
"There's some hypocrisy on this side, and that's why I think people are calling it theater," said King. "Having said that, we need a real investigation, not what's going on now."
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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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