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On the surface, Republicans had reason to be pleased by the congressional response to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. In the House, for example, both parties’ leaders quickly came to an agreement to create a bipartisan investigatory task force — featuring seven Republican and six Democratic lawmakers — and it was approved unanimously.
What’s more, House Speaker Mike Johnson chose several far-right election deniers and conspiracy theorists to serve on the panel, which has wasted no time getting to work, despite the fact that Congress is on its summer break. Indeed, task force members have already traveled to the scene of the Pennsylvania shooting for a first-hand examination.
And yet, some GOP members still aren’t pleased. Politico reported:
[S]ome conservative lawmakers are determined to look into it themselves, a sign of the right flank’s frustration about who ultimately got seats on the panel and the pace of existing investigations, which span both Congress and the administration. Johnson had privately indicated that he wanted “serious” Republicans to take part in the task force, and he did appoint multiple conservatives to the panel. Still, he’s gotten flack from members further to the right who accused him of sidelining lawmakers who have previously rebelled against leadership.
“So myself and Cory Mills are leading a parallel investigation into what happened on J-13th and the assassination attempt,” Republican Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona said on a podcast last week, referring to the July 13 shooting. “And we’re doing that because, like many of your listeners, we don’t trust the federal government to actually do the job necessary.”
Crane, incidentally, recently told a conservative media outlet, in reference to the shooting, “I don’t put it past some of the people in our government, their willingness to do anything to get rid of President Donald Trump.”
Just so we’re all clear, the idea that House GOP leaders chose “serious” Republicans to serve on the task force is a difficult idea to take seriously. The speaker tapped Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas, for example, and he’s an election denier who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential race. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee is also on the panel, despite being an election denier who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential race, and despite the fact that his right-wing background was so controversial in 2017 that the Senate wouldn’t confirm him when Trump nominated him to serve as secretary of the Army.
The task force will be chaired by Republican Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, who, in addition to being an election denier who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential race, is also up to his ears in the fake elector scandal; has accused Barack Obama of running a secret “shadow government”; and initially responded to the assassination attempt by describing it without evidence as an “attack from the left.”
Perhaps most notable of all is Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana — an election denier who’s also taken a leading role in concocting deeply weird conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack, including bizarre allegations related to the FBI and “ghost buses.” As a recent New York Times report summarized, “Even by a conspiracy theorist’s standards, the wild claims made by Representative Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, stand out.”
Johnson, eyeing “serious” members, nevertheless tapped Higgins for the congressional investigation.
And yet, Crane and Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida have apparently concluded that the task force’s GOP members aren’t quite unhinged enough, necessitating a “parallel” examination.
As a result, the public should expect to eventually see two reports: one from a bipartisan task force led by far-right Republicans, and another from a partisan task force led by even-further-to-the-right Republicans. Watch this space.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.