Politics

Kinzinger Suggests Subpoenas For McCarthy And Jordan But Not Trump In Jan. 6 Probe

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Alex Asgari Contributor
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Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who investigates the events of Jan. 6, suggested Sunday that fellow Republicans House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan may be subpoenaed for testimony. Kinzinger also expressed the opinion that a subpoena for former President Donald Trump was unlikely.

Kinzinger, who is a member of the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol attack, said during an appearance on ABC’s This Week Sunday morning that he supports subpoenas for Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.

“I would support subpoenas to anybody that can shed light on Jan. 6. If that’s the leader, that’s the leader [McCarthy]; if it’s anybody that talked to the president that can provide us that information. I wanna know what the president was doing every moment of that day,” Kinzinger responded when asked if he would support subpoenaing the two Republican Congressmen. (RELATED: ‘A Sham No One Can Believe’: GOP Leadership Blames Pelosi For Jan. 6 ‘Cover Up’)

McCarthy reportedly spoke to Trump over the phone during the attack urging the then-president to call off the rioters. “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump reportedly told him, according to CNN. McCarthy is said to have responded, “Who the fuck do you think you are talking to?”

Jim Jordan recently acknowledged that he also spoke to Trump on Jan. 6. “I spoke with him on Jan. 6. I talk to the president all time. I spoke with him that day, after? I think after. I don’t know if I spoke with him in the morning or not. I just don’t know … I don’t know when those conversations happened,” Jordan said in an interview.

When asked about possible testimony from former President Donald Trump, the Illinois representative said, “We might not even have to talk to Donald Trump to get the information.”

“They were tons of people around him, they were tons of people involved in the things that led up to Jan. 6. I know that we are gonna get to that information. If he has unique information that’s one thing, but I think there’s a lot of people around him that knew some things.”

Adam Kinzinger is one of the two Republicans, alongside with Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, sitting on the House committee investigating the attack. Both Republican members were nominated by Speaker Nancy Pelosi following partisan wrangling over the composition of the committee.

The select committee was established by the House Democrats after Republicans in the Senate blocked a 9/11-type bipartisan commission. The House Committee, tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 events, was initially supposed to have eight Democratic appointees by Speaker Pelosi and five Republican members appointed by GOP Leader McCarthy.

But last month Pelosi rejected two of McCarthy’s appointees, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and Indiana Rep. Jim Jordan, citing their alleged role in the attack. McCarthy then pulled all of his Republican nominees, leaving Pelosi to tap Republican Adam Kinzinger and other Democrats to serve on the committee.

“I wanna know if the National Guard took five or six hours to get to the Capitol Hill; Did the president make any calls and if he didn’t, why, and if he did of course then how come the National Guard still takes five hours? I think had the president picked up the phone and made a call, the guard would have been there immediately,” Kinzinger said in an interview, referring to the slow response time from the law enforcement that day. (RELATED: ‘Democracies Are Not Defined By Our Bad Days’: Adam Kinzinger Breaks Down During Jan. 6 Hearing)

He also questioned whether someone might be scared of their investigation for any role that they might have played in the attack. “If anybody is scared of this investigation I ask you one question: What are you afraid of? I mean, either you’re afraid of being discovered of having some kind of culpability in it, or … if you think it wasn’t a big deal, then you should allow this to go forward. It is essential for history, for the American people, for truth that we get to the bottom of this.”