Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) has become the first Congressional Republican to announce that they regret voting against the full certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory earlier this year. Those certification proceedings, of course, were completed by Congress after the attack on the Capitol in January by Trump’s supporters — and it’s those proceedings that the rioters were targeting. Rice told journalist Olivia Beavers that he still holds that there were “real issues with the election,” but as Beavers summarized things, Rice’s “contrition comes from Trump’s failure to intervene when a mob of his own supporters stormed the Capitol in order to try to stop the certification.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger to ABC on whether the Jan. 6 committee has more texts: "There are more texts out there that we haven't released … We're going to pursue — doggedly — everything, to the ends of the Earth, and that includes … members of Congress that had any involvement."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 20, 2021
‘In retrospect I should have voted to certify… Because President Trump was responsible for the attack on the Capitol… In the wee hours of that disgraceful night, while waiting for the Capitol of our great country to be secured, I knew I should vote to certify. But because I had made a public announcement of my intent to object, I did not want to go back on my word. So yeah, I regret my vote to object… There was a coward in that [day’s] equation. But it wasn’t Mike Pence.’
NEWS: GOP Rep. Tom Rice tells me he regrets his vote against certifying President Joe Biden's electoral wins in the hours after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
He appears to be the 1st R in Congress to publicly say so.
(He later voted to impeach Trump.)https://t.co/xSEhuUn67m
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) December 22, 2021
Rice is one of ten House Republicans who eventually supported the impeachment of Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection following the Capitol violence. He’s the only one of those ten House Republicans to have also voted against the full certification of Biden’s victory. Those who backed the impeachment have faced steep criticism from Trump allies in the GOP — and two of the impeachment’s GOP supporters, including Reps. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) and Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio), have announced that they’re not seeking re-election, but Rice is hoping to be re-elected. It’s remarkable that after all this time — and after all these revelations about the seriousness of the attack on the Capitol and the threats to democracy that it represented — Rice is the only one of the scores of Republicans in Congress who voted against confirming Biden’s win to reveal regrets.
Breaking: Jan 6 Cmte has asked Rep. Jim Jordan, one of former President Trump's top congressional allies, to voluntarily meet with the panel as it zeroes in on Republican lawmakers who may have significant knowledge of events leading up to January 6.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) December 22, 2021
