Cheney backs Pelosi rejection of Republican Leader McCarthy choices for Jan. 6 panel

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Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney once again broke from her party Wednesday, supporting Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s decision to veto two GOP nominees to sit on the Jan. 6 House panel.

The panel was intended to include a bipartisan group of lawmakers, though with more Democrats than Republicans, to investigate and report on what happened during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

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"I agree with what the Speaker has done," Cheney told reporters from in front of the Capitol.

Pelosi blocked GOP Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana from serving on the investigatory panel after they were nominated by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy earlier this week.

The House Select Committee includes eight Democrats and five Republicans and was established after Senate Republicans filibustered the push for an independent bipartisan commission in May. 

But Pelosi, who reserved the right to veto McCarthy’s nominees, said she rejected Jordan and Banks because she believed they jeopardized the "integrity of the investigation."

Cheney backed the Speakers decision and accused McCarthy of politicizing the investigation. 

"At every opportunity, the minority leader has attempted to prevent the American people from understanding what happened to block this investigation," she said.

PELOSI BANS GOP REPS. JIM JORDAN, JIM BANKS FROM SERVING ON JAN. 6 COMMITTEE, MCCARTHY THREATENS TOTAL BOYCOTT

"The Speaker objected to two Republican members, she accepted three others … one of whom may be a material witness that led to…Jan. 6," she said. "The other who disqualified himself by his comments in particular over the last 24-hours demonstrating that he is not taking this seriously."

The Wyoming lawmaker was just one of two Republicans to vote in favor of the committee’s inquiry into the attack on the U.S. Capitol and was the only Republican selected by Pelosi to sit on the panel. 

Pelosi said she was prepared to accept McCarthy’s other three recommendations, Republican Reps. Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, and Troy Nehls of Texas. 

McCarthy responded by pulling all of his nominees from the panel, calling Pelosi’s rejection an "egregious abuse of power."

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"There must be an investigation that is nonpartisan, that is sober, that is serious, that gets to the facts, wherever they may lead," Cheney told reporters outside the Capitol.  

The House Select Committee will hold its first hearing on July 27.