Washington
CNN
—
When reporters asked Mike Johnson to respond to President Donald Trump’s pardons for more than 1,000 people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, the House speaker had a ready response.
“We are not looking back. We look forward to it,” he said Wednesday morning.
Just three hours later, Johnson announced the creation of a new select subcommittee to continue the GOP investigation until January 6 because “there is still work to be done.” He also said Republicans would investigate President Joe Biden’s pardons before leaving the country.
Wednesday’s whiplash showed how Johnson is pulled in opposing directions: Moderate and vulnerable members of the GOP’s historically narrow majority want the party to look forward and focus on its agenda. But a significant portion of conservatives – and Trump himself – are not done with the past.
Before Trump took office, he told Johnson that he wanted House Republicans to prioritize restarting the previous investigation from Jan. 6, two sources familiar with the conversations told CNN. Behind the scenes, Johnson struggled for weeks over how to implement Trump’s demand.
The speaker wanted to keep his promise to the president, whose support is crucial to his political survival, while paying attention to his most vulnerable members. Johnson also had limited options for where to place the investigation of Georgia Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk this Congress because House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil communicated to House GOP leaders that he no longer wanted the investigation to be conducted by his panel, three sources said. A spokesperson for Steil said he supported Loudermilk’s investigation.
Johnson’s procedural solution was to announce that Loudermilk, who also discussed the matter with Trump, would continue his investigation by relaunching on January 6 as a new select subcommittee led by the House Judiciary Chairman, Jim Jordan. Loudermilk also said the investigation was better within the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee. But that won’t necessarily resolve Johnson’s political dilemma.
North Carolina GOP Rep. Richard Hudson — who leads the House GOP campaign arm that has built a hardline message on immigration and inflation to help Republicans maintain their House majority — has told CNN when asked about his party’s efforts to reexamine Jan. 6 and other investigations: “That’s not what I’m focused on.” I focus on the future. »
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, one of three Republicans who won a district Trump lost in November, told CNN, “It’s a lot of throwback” when asked if he would support a new Republican-led commission investigating January 6.
And before Trump returned to the White House, it was a topic many tried to avoid. Johnson still has not hung a plaque honoring the Capitol Police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 attack, even though Congress passed a law requiring a plaque to be placed by March 2023.
Republicans are now considering what other elements of Trump’s personal agenda should be on their investigative list.
They indicated they may pursue investigations targeting former special counsel Jack Smith in connection with his two criminal cases against Trump and former special counsel David Weiss for his handling of tax and gun-related prosecutions against the Biden’s son, Hunter. Lawmakers also warned members of the Biden administration that they would face increased scrutiny.
Trump made Cabinet picks, like Kash Patel for FBI director and Pam Bondi for attorney general, that amplified his claims that the Biden administration was a weapon against him. Biden’s preemptive pardons of prominent Trump critics and members of his own family — unprecedented in recent presidential history — have also fueled Republicans’ desire to run through the last administration.
But Republican leaders are still figuring out what that looks like, beyond saying they want accountability for what they perceive as a legal war against Trump and a double standard from Biden.
Jordan, whose Judiciary Committee will host many of these investigations, said his approach to investigations into the Biden administration would be to focus on “the unanswered questions.” The Ohio Republican referenced the discovery of pipe bombs outside Republican and Democratic headquarters on Jan. 6 and the presence of some paid FBI informants at the Capitol that day.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who leads the House Judiciary subcommittee, where much of this oversight work will come from, said he plans to return to the Biden administration on several fronts.
“I don’t want to just rehash them for the sake of rehashing them,” the New Jersey Republican told CNN. “I understand, sometimes we go beyond things. But I want to know what went wrong, how it happened. What we’re doing now to make sure this never happens to anyone again, Republican or Democrat.
But GOP leaders will have to contend with lawmakers like Rep. Dan Newhouse, one of two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021. Newhouse said he preferred to focus on “energy , the high cost of everything, inflation, security.” , there are so many different things. (Newhouse also said Trump’s pardons for those convicted of violence on Jan. 6 were a “middle finger to law enforcement and our justice system.”)
Trump doesn’t always want to hear from such members.
When Trump invited groups of Republican lawmakers to Mar-a-Lago earlier this month before taking office, he deliberately left out Rep. David Valadao of California, the other remaining Republican who had voted to impeach Trump.
“I was fine with it,” Valadao told CNN.
