Thirty-five Republicans defied their party leaders and former President Donald Trump in siding with Democrats in the 252-175 vote to establish a commission to investigate the Capitol riot in Washington in the first week of January.
According to the BBC, Trump had urged Republicans to vote against the ‘Democrat trap’.
Trump supporters stormed Congress on 6 January in a failed bid to thwart certification of President Joe Biden’s victory in November’s election.
According to the report, the vote by the Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives is unlikely to be matched in the Senate, where the rules mean Democrats would need 10 Republicans to join them in passing the measure.
An inquiry would be modelled on the commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. It would establish a 10-member body, evenly split between the two main parties, that would make recommendations by the end of the year on how to prevent any repeat of the Capitol invasion.
All 10 of the House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in the days after the Capitol riot for incitement of insurrection were among the 35 who voted for the commission.
New York congressman John Katko, who negotiated the legislation with Democrats, was quoted as saying: ‘This is about facts – it’s not partisan politics.’
Katko – the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee – said that ‘the American people and the Capitol Police deserve answers, and action as soon as possible to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again’.
However, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene described the commission as a Democratic ruse ‘to smear Trump supporters’.
The BBC reports that Trump continues to spread unfounded claims that last year’s election was stolen from him – the conspiracy theory that drove many of his supporters to Capitol Hill on 6 January. One of those supporters, an unarmed woman, was shot and killed by police as she tried to break into the House chamber.
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