McConnell comes out against Jan. 6 commission, imperiling its chances of becoming law

WASHINGTON - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday that he will oppose legislation to create a commission tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol - a signal that the legislation will not have the votes to get through the Senate.

“After careful consideration. I’ve made the decision to oppose the House Democrats slanted and unbalanced proposal for another commission to study the events of January the 6th,” he said on the Senate floor.

McConnell shared his views Wednesday morning with his colleagues at a Republican senators’ breakfast hosted by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who is helping to lead a Senate investigation into the events of Jan. 6 and has opposed a commission, according to a Republican aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions.

McConnell’s opposition came after he told reporters on Tuesday that Senate Republicans were “undecided” about the commission and that they wanted to “read the fine print.”

“If it’s gonna go forward, it needs to be clearly balanced and not tilted one way or the other so we have an objective evaluation,” he said.

In his comments to reporters Tuesday, McConnell cited two possible objections - that the commission could impinge on existing federal prosecutions of rioters and that the commission as constructed would appear to give the Democratic-selected chairman the power to hire and fire its staff.

Later that night, former president Donald Trump publicly opposed the commission, calling it a “Democrat trap” in a statement that called on McConnell and other GOP leaders to start “listening.”

Word of McConnell’s opposition came as the two leaders of the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, urged passage of the legislation, which is modeled on the panel they led.

“The January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was one of the darkest days in the history of our country. Americans deserve an objective and an accurate account of what happened,” they said in a statement.

The news of McConnell’s position was first reported by Politico.