Flame-thrower Republican Jim Banks made plain why he has absolutely no business serving on the January 6th committee during an interview on Fox News Sunday, and why Pelosi was right to give him the boot. Banks accused Pelosi of only wanting people to serve who are "interested in a narrative," or in other words, actually putting the blame for the MAGA insurrection squarely where it belongs, which is on Trump, the other Republicans who participated in the rally and helped to incite the violence, on the members of Congress who took these seditionists on tours of the capitol prior to the invasion, and on every member of his party and right wing media for pushing the Big Lie that the election was supposedly "stolen" from Trump that had these idiots worked into a frenzy in the first place.
Banks is still pushing the narrative we've heard from other Republicans, and on Fox since they began trying to defend the indefensible, which is that Nancy Pelosi is somehow solely responsible for the breakdown of security at the capitol, ignoring the fact that if you're going to blame Pelosi, then you'd better also blame Mitch McConnell, Trump, the Capitol Police and the House and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms.
"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," Banks said during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday."
"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," he said.
Banks also attacked Pelosi's selection of Liz Cheney, and potentially Adam Kinzinger to serve on the committee:
"It's clear that Pelosi only once members on this committee who will stick to her talking points and stick to her narrative," Banks said of Kinzinger's possible nomination. "That's why she's picked the group that she's already picked and anyone that she asked to be on this committee from this point moving forward will be stuck to her, her narrative, to her point-of-view."
Pelosi doesn't want partisan bomb-throwers who's only reason for being on the committee would be to disrupt it.
More on why her decision was the correct one here:
By nixing Banks/Jordan, Pelosi exposed a stark realty: "It is no longer possible to proceed normally" with a GOP for whom "fairly counted elections are a hindrance and outright lies are an accepted currency of politics."
Great @EJDionne, via @PostOpinionshttps://t.co/kHwlsxeXsR— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 21, 2021
