House Republican leaders on Tuesday announced their picks for powerful committee seats in the new Congress, and most of them have character flaws: They chose to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election after making a lie that the election was stolen from Donald Trump.
“Our committee chairs represent the best of our conference,” House Majority Leader Scalise (R-La.) said when announcing the GOP’s choice for chairmanships.
Of the 17 members elected to the post of chairman, 11 voted to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election. He defended his decision to do so by telling the same lie about widespread voter fraud just hours before causing a deadly riot in the Capitol and sending the lawmakers into hiding for life.
Here are 11 Republican Reps. Glenn Thompson (Pa.) for the agriculture committee, Mike Rogers (Ala.) for the armed services, Jodey Arrington (Texas) for the budget, Virginia Foxx (NC) for education and workforce, Mark Green (Tenn. ) for homeland security, Jim Jordan (Ohio) for judiciary, Roger Williams (Texas) for small business, Sam Graves (Mo.) for transportation and infrastructure, Mike Bost (Ill.) for veterans, Jason Smith (Mo.) for ways and others, and Frank Lucas (Okla.) for science, space and technology.
Jordan’s role at the top of the judiciary committee is particularly egregious because, after initially dodging questions, he finally admitted that he spoke to Trump several times as insurrectionists rampaged through the Capitol. He refused to say what they talked about and deny the request for interviews by the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021 attacks.
The Ohio Republican also helped make a bogus legal argument that former Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to interfere in the election certification process, continue the text in theory to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows days before the attack.
As unfortunate as it is that these are the people responsible for creating federal policy and legislation for the next two years, the people within the party are equally flawed: Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (N.Y. ). ) and Scalise all voted to reject the 2020 presidential results as well.
6 Other Republicans who won the chairmanship on Tuesday – and who chose not to try to disrupt democracy after the uprising – are Reps. Kay Granger (Texas) for appropriations, Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) for energy and trade, Patrick McHenry (NC) for financial services , Michael McCaul (Texas) for foreign affairs, Bruce Westerman (Ark.) for natural resources and James Comer (Ky.) for oversight and accountability.