Representative Jim Banks (R-ID), one of the two GOP lawmakers blocked by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) from serving on the January 6 Select Committee, said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that the Speaker was trying to avoid questions about her responsible for the “breakdown of security” that allowed for the storming the Capitol.
Banks said, “It’s more clear than ever that Nancy Pelosi is not interested in investigation. She’s only interested in a narrative. She claims the reason that she booted me from the committee was because of antics on the part of Jim Jordan and I. In hindsight, what I realize what she means by that now is that we were prepared to ask questions that no one else has asked and demand answers as to why the Capital was vulnerable to an attack on January 6th? Why was there a systemic breakdown of security at the Capitol on January 6th? If you’re going to investigate January 6th, why not ask those questions? That’s all that this comes down to. She has already predetermined a narrative about Donald Trump, about Republicans. She doesn’t want to talk about what happened at the Capitol that day to make sure something like that never happens again.”
Guest-host Martha MacCallum said, “So you don’t think that she has concerns about those issues and how that security breakdown happened? Do you think that she feels it will reflect poorly on her?”
Banks said, “I really do and here’s why, on Wednesday before I found out that I was banned from the committee — I found out, by the way, on Twitter—I was meeting with the head of the U.S. Capitol Police Union who represent the rank-and-file heroes that make up the Capitol Police who protect me, my family, my staff, every single day. He told me, the head of the Capitol Police union told me that on January 6, the Capitol Police officers weren’t prepared for what was going to happen even though the head of the Capitol Police had intelligence reports dating back to three weeks before January 6th that something potentially very dangerous could happen that day. They weren’t prepared for it, they weren’t trained for it, and may be most important of all, they weren’t equipped for it. They lacked equipment, basic equipment, to take care of something like what should at that point should have been expected would occur.”
He added, “Here’s the bottom line, once you go up to the top of the flagpole of who is in charge of the Capitol Police, who the Capitol Police union chief, they blamed the leadership of the Capitol Police. But due to the rules of the United States Capitol, the power structure of the Capitol, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, has more control and authority, and responsibility over the leadership of the Capitol Police than anyone else in the United States Capitol. So she doesn’t want us to ask these questions because, at the end of the day, she is ultimately responsible for the breakdown of security at the capitol that happened on January 6.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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