Nancy Pelosi repeats call for commission to investigate Capitol riots

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi previously called to establish a commission that would investigate the January 6 insurrection. Over the weekend, the House Speaker repeated her call for a Congress-led investigation.

In a letter to her colleagues marking the 100th day since the insurrection, where a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol to delay Congress’s certification of votes for Joe Biden, Pelosi repeated her call for a commission. Pelosi wrote that they have again written a proposal to their Republican counterparts, following the bipartisan commission modeled after the 9/11 attack. Negotiations for the panel with the Republicans were previously stalled due to concerns regarding the number of members the commission would have from both parties.

“On this 100th day, we are determined to seek the truth of January 6th. To do so, we must have a January 6th commission. To that end, we have once again sent a proposal to the Republicans, modeled after the 9/11 Commission,” wrote Pelosi. “It’s not about reviewing the elections, it’s not about examining Black Lives Matter, it’s about what happened on January 6, and how we can prevent it from happening again.”

Pelosi added that they will proceed with a security supplemental by the House Appropriations Committee and the Committee on the House Administration to address the commission’s physical structure and its personnel requirements. While individual House committees are already looking into the riots, Pelosi maintained that an independent commission is necessary.

The previous proposal Pelosi drafted back in February was criticized by Republicans for the number of people from both parties. In the previous proposal, the commission would be made up of seven Democrats and four Republicans.

Last week, in an interview with USA Today, Pelosi reflected on what happened in the riots. The House Speaker was among the targets of the pro-Trump mob, including then-vice president Mike Pence. Pelosi joked that she may have put up a fight against the rioters had she been caught.

Pelosi added, gesturing to her shoes, that she would have used them as weapons in a fight had the situation occurred. During the insurrection, Pelosi was quickly evacuated from the Capitol to a safe location.