House Republicans are reportedly planning to open a number of investigations into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot despite recent criticism of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) decision to grant Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive access to surveillance footage from the day of the attack.
Republican lawmakers are planning to open multiple inquiries into the conduct of the Democratic-led Jan. 6 committee from the last Congress, the security failures that occurred during the Capitol riot, as well as the treatment of rioters who were charged in the aftermath of the attack, according to CNN.
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Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) is expected to lead one of the inquiries in his position as chairman of the House Administration Committee's subcommittee on oversight, the outlet reported. That investigation will focus specifically on the Jan. 6 committee and the security failures that led up to the Capitol attack.
“I’m spending some time over there getting my hands wrapped around what we have. We’re going to be looking at what happened in the Capitol. What happened leading up to it? How did we have such a security failure?” Loudermilk told CNN. “The Jan. 6 committee, they didn’t take that approach. That should have been something that they looked at. I think they looked more on the political side of it.”
Loudermilk has already begun sifting through more than 2 million documents related to the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation, noting that his work is only “in the infancy stage.” The Georgia Republican plans to continue his efforts by expanding his staff, holding hearings, and possibly issuing subpoenas, he said.
Former members of the Jan. 6 committee said they weren’t surprised by GOP efforts to investigate their work, noting they’ve been preparing for such a move since Republicans won control of the House in the midterm elections.
“It’s something that we’ve thought through over the past two years. I knew that there could be political consequences,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), who served on the Jan. 6 panel, told CNN. “We’ll see what happens — and we’ll be prepared.”
The House Oversight Committee is expected to open its own investigation into the Jan. 6 riot, with lawmakers focusing on the treatment of rioters who were arrested and placed in jail. These efforts will be partly led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who said earlier this week she plans to lead a group of Republicans to visit Jan. 6 defendants and the jail facilities in which they've been detained.
The news of the investigations comes as Democrats and some Republicans have been critical of McCarthy’s handling of the Jan. 6 riot since taking on the mantle of House speaker. Although McCarthy previously steered clear of talking publicly about the Capitol attack, he has since reversed course after making promises to the right flank of his conference to revisit the topic in exchange for their support in his speakership bid.
As part of his concessions, McCarthy promised to release surveillance footage of the Capitol riot for public view, granting exclusive access to Carlson on Fox News. Carlson began airing clips of the riot earlier this week, prompting an outcry from Democrats who accused the prime-time host of attempting to portray the riot as a peaceful Capitol visit.
“[Carlson] tried to argue it was nothing more than a peaceful sightseeing tour. Can you imagine?" said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Tuesday. “By diving deep into the waters of conspiracy and cherry-picking from thousands of hours of security footage, Mr. Carlson told the bold-faced lie that the Capitol attack, which we all saw with our own eyes, was somehow not an attack at all.”
Schumer also placed blame on McCarthy, decrying the House speaker as being “every bit as culpable” for making the footage available.
"Conduct like theirs is just asking for another Jan. 6 to happen," Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also weighed in on the matter, telling reporters that he thought Fox News’s portrayal of the riot was a “mistake.”
"My concern is how it was depicted,” McConnell said. "Clearly, the chief of the Capitol Police, in my view, correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on Jan. 6. So that's my reaction to it.”
Now, McCarthy faces an ethics complaint filed by a nonprofit watchdog group that accuses the GOP leader of being politically motivated in his release of security camera footage to Carlson. Members of Public Citizen filed the complaint on Tuesday, requesting that the Office of Congressional Ethics investigate the speaker over whether he violated House rules.
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McCarthy defended releasing the surveillance tapes, arguing the release was important to ensure a transparent investigation.
"I continue to hold that my job here, just like I was asked long before, is to make sure all the transparency comes out, and that's exactly what I'm doing," McCarthy told reporters Tuesday evening.