Rep. Schiff: Jan. 6 Committee Hoping for 9-11 Commission-Type Probe

Rep. Adam Schiff, one of the Democrats appointed to the House select committee announced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to investigate the incidents that took place at the Capitol in Jan. 6, said Friday the group's "gold standard" is to "produce a report like the 9-11 Commission did."

The California Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the committee will examine "what intelligence we had, what intelligence we might have had, what took place on the 6th, why we were so ill-prepared, why the response was so untimely."

Most importantly, Schiff said, the committee will determine what needs to be done to "protect ourselves going forward."

He acknowledged that some of the investigation has been covered, but added that "a lot hasn't been covered at all.

"We're still trying to get answers to some of the most basic questions, so we want this to be an analysis of what happened that day," he said. 

The committee as of now contains only Democrats, with the exception of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who Pelosi added to it, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy can also add Republicans to the group. 

"I do welcome Liz Cheney's presence and as well as any Republican who wants to get to the bottom of what happened on the sixth and is serious about their constitutional duty," said Schiff. "I think that she is approaching the subject with solemnity."

But, he added that it's difficult to determine who McCarthy will recommend for the committee, if anyone. 

"He didn't want the investigation to be done, to begin with, when he was offered a commission negotiated in a bipartisan basis with five Democrats and five Republicans," said Schiff. "Whether he will try to make a circus out of it or to put responsible people on it, it's hard to say. But we can only control what we do intend to fulfill our constitutional duty."

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will chair the select committee. His appointment comes after he pushed to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 actions, but Senate Republicans eventually blocked the move, reports NBC News.  

Pelosi has also appointed Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Elaine Luria, D-Va., to the committee. 

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