On Friday, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have created an independent commission to investigate the Trump-inspired riot at the Capitol in January. The bill needed 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to advance to a final vote, and it only got 54, with nine Republicans and two Democrats absent from the procedural vote. Six Republicans, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine), Bill Cassidy (La.), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Mitt Romney (Utah), and Rob Portman (Ohio), voted in favor of advancing the bill to create the independent commission, and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) publicly lauded them after the vote.
Cheney commented on Twitter as follows:
‘Thank you to Senators Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski, Portman, Sasse, and Romney for voting for truth and defense of our constitution. History will remember those who put country ahead of politics.’
Thank you to Senators Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski, Portman, Sasse, and Romney for voting for truth and defense of our constitution. History will remember those who put country ahead of politics.
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) May 28, 2021
In her remarks, Cheney indirectly spotlighted the fact that the Senate Republicans who opposed the bill essentially prioritized political interests ahead of the good of the country. According to POLITICO, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told fellow Republican Senators ahead of the vote on the riot commission bill that forming the investigative panel in question would impede the GOP’s “midterm election message,” as the publication put it. In short, McConnell seems interested in focusing anywhere but Trump while heading into the midterms, but an orderly investigation of the attack on the Capitol that the former president inspired wouldn’t exactly facilitate the GOP’s willful ignorance.
Now that the effort to form a bipartisan investigation into the Capitol riot has failed, House Democrats are “considering opening a Dem-led probe into the attack,” CNN’s Manu Raju shared on Friday. The House could form what’s called a select committee to look into the issue, as it has done to handle COVID-19 related issues. Select committees operate for limited periods of time and have more focused areas of work than ordinary Congressional committees.
This mode of operation could help supersede potential Republican obstruction — the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis is currently chaired (not co-chaired) by Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), and having a Democrat as chair gives the party more leverage than what would have been in place in the more bipartisan-oriented independent commission that had been proposed.
#BREAKING: 54-35, Senate Republicans block effort to open debate on bill to create an outside commission to probe Jan. 6 attack. The vote marks their first successful legislative filibuster this Congress. House Dems are now considering opening a Dem-led probe into the attack
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 28, 2021
