WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday that he looks forward to seeing what the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol finds in its probe.
“It was a horrendous event and I think what they are seeking to find out is something the public needs to know,” McConnell said in an interview with Spectrum News.
McConnell’s interest in the investigation is notable since he had opposed the creation of a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission, calling the idea “slanted and unbalanced.”
The minority leader's comments are a stark contrast to those of his GOP counterpart in the House, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who has denounced the committee’s work as purely partisan.
Earlier this week, McConnell was pressed about what he was hoping to learn from the Jan. 6 committee.
“Well, I’m like you. I read the reports every day,” he said at a press conference. “And it’ll be interesting to see what they conclude.”
Over the last two months, the Jan. 6 committee has been accelerating its investigation into the riot. The House voted on Tuesday to refer former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to the Justice Department for a criminal charge over his refusal to answer the committee’s questions about attack.
When the committee held its contempt vote on Meadows earlier this week, lawmakers disclosed text messages he received around the time of the attack. The texts, which Meadows provided to the panel while he was still cooperating with it, were from several Fox News hosts, Donald Trump Jr. and lawmakers, who were not named by the committee. The office of Rep. Jim Jordan confirmed Wednesday that the Ohio Republican was one of those lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the committee announced Thursday that it had subpoenaed a retired Army colonel who contributed to a PowerPoint presentation about how to overturn the 2020 election results that was presented to Republican lawmakers ahead of the riot.
