After House Minority Leader and Trump toady Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) threatened to punish Republicans who agree to serve on the January 6th Select Committee, he seemed to back down after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) named Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) to be part of it.

Only two House Republicans, Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) joined Democrats to form the committee to investigate the Capitol insurrection on Wednesday. Pelosi has the power to reject Republicans put forward by McCarthy to serve on the committee, which means nutjobs like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan, Louie Gohmert, and other Trump loyalists will likely not be invited to take part since they would work to sabotage it.

In response to the formation of the committee, McCarthy reportedly threatened to punish Republican members who agree to serve on it.

But Cheney, who has already been punished for refusing to back Trump’s election lies, defied McCarthy on Thursday by agreeing to serve on the committee after Pelosi named her as a member.

“I’m honored to have been named to serve on the January 6th select committee,” Cheney said in a statement. “Congress is obligated to conduct a full investigation of the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814. What happened on Jan. 6th can never happen again. Those who are responsible for the attack need to be held accountable and this select committee will fulfill that responsibility in a professional, expeditious and non-partisan manner.”

“Our oath to the Constitution, our commitment to the rule of law, and to the peaceful transfer of power must always be above partisan politics,” she concluded.

During his GOP press conference, McCarthy appeared to back down from his threats after much backlash and mockery.

“I’m not making any threats about committee assignments,” he insisted. “You get committees from your conference,” the GOP leader said. “I don’t know in history where someone would go and get their committee assignments from the Speaker and expect to have them from the conference as well. What I’m saying is, it was shocking to me that if a person is a Republican, they get their committee assignments from the Republican conference. For somebody to accept committee assignments from Speaker Pelosi, that’s unprecedented.”

Here’s the video via YouTube:

Except Democrats used the same rules for this Select Committee as Republicans did when they launched their Benghazi witch hunt. Speaker Pelosi has the authority to name Republican members to the committee and can reject any lawmaker McCarthy puts forward. The Select Committee will have the power to subpoena witnesses and evidence. In fact, McCarthy might even be called to testify since he apparently played a role in the insurrection.

Republicans had a chance to support a bipartisan investigation and they refused, so now Democrats are moving forward with a Select Committee that will include Republicans who are not beholden to Trump. McCarthy is only throwing a fit about it because he desperately wants to cover up Republican involvement in the plot to overthrow our democracy.

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