Cheney to make 1/6 panel opening statement as Dems try to present 'strong ...

In an attempt to boost the bipartisan appearance of the January 6 committee, Democrats are planning to have Republican Liz Cheney deliver one of the two opening statements for the panel's first hearing on Tuesday.

During a closed-door meeting last week, committee member Adam Schiff suggested to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that Cheney speak after the panel's Chairman Bennie Thompson delivers the first opening statement.

According to the Washington Post, a personal familiar with the private deliberations said that Schiff argued having the Wyoming Republican congresswoman speak at the top of the hearing would help present a 'strong visual' of the committee's goal to probe the insurrection in a bipartisan manner.

It is especially important for the group to create the facade of elevating the two Republicans on the committee, Cheney and Representative Adam Kinzinger, after Pelosi rejected two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's picks for the select committee.

Subsequently, McCarthy ended up pulling all five of his selections, including rejected members Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana – and those Pelosi planned to accept, Representatives Troy Nehls of Texas, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota and Rodney Davis of Illinois.

Democrats originally only planned to have Thompson deliver the opening remarks at Tuesday's hearing in the absence of any GOP-appointed members, until Schiff made the suggestion to include Cheney, two people familiar with the decision revealed. 

Congressman Kinzinger, of Illinois, announced Sunday that he accepted Pelosi's invitation that day to become the latest – and only second Republican – on the panel. 

There are now seven Democrats and two Republicans who make up the select committee probing the January 6 Capitol riot. Pelosi's panel is investigating security failures and potential political motivations behind the attack on the Capitol by a mob of Donald Trump's supporters.

But considering both GOP members are Trump critics, and voted for his second impeachment, Republicans are having a hard time seeing the panel as anything but a partisan Democratic probe aimed at pegging the riot on the former president.

McCarthy answered 'we'll see' when asked at a White House event Monday if he would punish Cheney and Kinzinger for joining the Democrat-led committee.

He called the duo of anti-Trump GOP lawmakers 'Pelosi Republicans.'

When asked when he had last talked to them he told DailyMail.com, 'Couldn't tell you.'

The GOP leader is under pressure from some members of his Republican caucus to crack down on Cheney and Kinzinger.

Cheney told Politico that McCarthy's remarks are 'pretty childish.'

'We've got very serious business here. We have important work to do,' she said.

McCarthy attended an event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Monday, marking the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It put him in the same venue as Pelosi, who he's been arguing with over the formation of the 1/6 committee. Pelosi vetoed two of his Republican nominees to the panel and he pulled all his picks in return. 

The two didn't interact during the event but McCarthy was spotted speaking to President Joe Biden afterward. 

Pelosi and McCarthy shared a terse phone call, CNN reported, after Pelosi nixed  Republican Reps. Jim Banks and Jim Jordan from serving.

'What you're doing is unprecedented,' McCarthy said.    

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 the two Republicans, both staunch allies of Donald Trump, to serve on the committee that will probe the January 6 Capitol riot.  

Both Jordan and Banks voted to overturn the election the day of the insurrection.  

Later Pelosi said she would appoint Kinzinger, a Republican Trump critic, to serve on the select committee instead. She announced Cheney's appointment last month.

Putting the two Republicans on the panel allows Pelosi to tout any findings as bipartisan. 

'She's broken Congress. Then it just makes the whole committee sham and the outcome predetermined,' McCarthy told reporters at the White House on Monday. 

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, Cheney joined the body earlier this month. 

Kinzinger will join the other members at the committee's first hearing on Tuesday. 

 McCarthy last week pulled his five picks, which were given to Pelosi when she created the group. The move came after the speaker rejected Jordan and Banks.

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.'   

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?'