Murkowski Suggests Trump To Testify Under Oath For Insurrection

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In a new CNN interview, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) described former President Donald Trump as “a very key individual” for the work of an independent investigative commission that is under development and is meant to examine the January riot by Trump supporters at the Capitol.

As Murkowski put it when asked if the former president should speak with the investigative commission:

‘If you put together a commission that is focused on the events of January 6, then I think he’s obviously a very key individual.’

Murkowski was one of seven Republican Senators who voted in favor of convicting Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection after the riot. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced this week that he opposes the bipartisan investigative commission plan as it stands, so support from figures like Murkowski could be key to getting the group established. In the Senate, because of the filibuster rule allowing the chamber’s minority to block moving to a final vote on most legislation, Democrats appear to need the support of at least 10 Senators to move ahead. Assuming that all Democrats vote in favor of establishing the commission, that would leave its backers with 60 votes for moving forward in the 100-member chamber, as required by the filibuster rule.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced his own opposition to the investigative commission plan, but in the House — which was scheduled to vote on the plan this Wednesday — that opposition is less relevant because the chamber does not have a filibuster rule. McCarthy insisted that the commission should also examine what he called “interrelated forms of political violence in America,” but it’s not an excuse for any rioting or the like to observe that there is simply no substantive on-the-ground connection between, for instance, last year’s anti-police brutality riots and the Trump-inspired violence at the Capitol this January.