House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had a terse conversation over the phone after the Democrat decided to nix two of the Republican's selections for the January 6 select committee.
'What you're doing is unprecedented,' McCarthy told Pelosi in a phone call last week, according to CNN.
The network reported that on the call voices were raised and McCarthy hinted that Pelosi's decision would come back to haunt her.
Pelosi had announced on Wednesday that she wouldn't allow Rep. Jim Jordan, a well known Trump loyalist, and Rep. Jim Banks to serve on the committee that will probe the January 6 Capitol riot.
'What you're doing is unprecedented,' an angry House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a heated phone conversation last week, CNN reported
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Wednesday that she was nixing two of McCarthy's Republican choices to serve on the 1/6 select committee: Reps. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks
Both Jordan and Banks voted to overturn the election the day of the insurrection.
Later Pelosi said she would appoint Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican Trump critic, to serve on the select committee instead.
Calls to punish Republicans investigating the Capitol riots have grown after Kinzinger accepted Pelosi's offer to serve on the Jan. 6 committee on Sunday.
He is the second Republican and outspoken Trump critic to take a seat on the committee at the behest of the House Speaker, after Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney joined the body earlier this month.
Kinzinger will join the other members at the committee's first hearing on Tuesday.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy last week pulled his five picks, which were given to Pelosi when she created the group. The move came after the speaker rejected two of them – Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana.
Now, GOP members beyond the hard-right Freedom Caucus are calling for party leaders to remove the pair from other committees.
'There's a lot,' one Republican told CNN about the push. 'Supporting Pelosi's unprecedented move to reject McCarthy's picks was a bridge too far.'
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (left) joined Liz Cheney (right) on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied seats to two Trump supporters
Pelosi told ABC News on Sunday morning that Jordan and Banks would 'jeopardize the integrity of the investigation.'
Kinzinger agreed that the panel needed a 'serious, clear-eyed non-partisan approach'.
'Today, I was asked by the Speaker to serve on the House Select Committee to Investigate January 6th and I humbly accepted,' the Illinois congressman wrote in a statement Sunday afternoon.
'I'm a Republican dedicated to conservative values,' he continued, 'but I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution - and while this is not the position I expected to be in or sought out, when duty calls, I will always answer.
'I will work diligently to ensure we get to the truth and hold those responsible for the attack fully accountable,' he said in his Sunday statement.
Both Cheney and Kinzinger voted for Trump's impeachment following the January 6 riot.
Kinzinger has been a vocal critic of the former president both on television and on social media. He strongly criticized his own political party, saying that the GOP is no longer focused on policy and has become all about 'loyalty' to Trump.
'I think what I'm used to saying to any Republican that's maybe kind of confused by the moment we're in is policy doesn't matter anymore. It literally is all your loyalty to Donald Trump. As I've said before, this is something that like echoes a little bit out of North Korea, where no matter what policy comes out, you're loyal to the guy,' he told NBC News' Meet the Press last month.
Cheney was voted out of her No. 3 leadership role in the party and replaced by loyalist Elise Stefanik for continually calling out Trump on his election lies.
There are no Trump supporters on the committee investigating the violent breach, which critics say was sparked by Trump's calls to 'stop the steal' and 'show strength' during a rally that same day.
McCarthy had previously warned freshman Republicans to look to Pelosi for future committee appointments if they accepted her invitation.
'Plenty of people wondering the same things,' another GOP member told CNN. 'If they are accepting appointments from Nancy Pelosi rather than the GOP, haven't they already effectively left? Perhaps they should ask Speaker Pelosi for committee assignments?'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday she 'plans' to select Republican Kinzinger and 'other Republicans' for the committee probing the January 6 Capitol attack
Republicans are warning of 'endless retaliation' as a 'new level of partisanship' emerged when Pelosi rejected two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (pictured) picks for the panel
McCarthy fumed after Kinzinger joined the panel, calling it not bipartisan – just made up of people hand-selected by Pelosi who all share her same view that Trump is to blame for the Capitol attack.
'Speaker Pelosi's rejection of the Republican nominees to serve on the committee and self-appointment of members who share her pre-conceived narrative will not yield a serious investigation,' McCarthy said in a Sunday statement after Kinzinger accepted a post on the panel.
He did not directly reference Kinzinger's willingness to accept the speaker's invitation.
'The Speaker has structured this select committee to satisfy her political objectives,' he added. 'She had months to work with Republicans on a reasonable and fair approach to get answers on the events and security failures surrounding January 6. Instead, she has played politics.'
The California Republican said the Senate has already conducted successful bipartisan investigations that 'should serve as a roadmap' for the January 6 select committee.
'Speaker Pelosi's departure from this serious-minded approach has destroyed the select
