Where Things Stand: GOPer Tries To Cosplay As Jan 6 Committee Member

Let's go back in time for a minute. Back when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was putting together a panel of House members to participate in the Jan. 6 select committee to probe the insurrection, she rejected two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) panelist picks (the Jims) — Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN).

See Also: Dr. Anthony Fauci tells Dana Bash  that US Covid-19 cases are headed in the "right direction," but the US should be careful not to prematurely declare victory.

The decision was rooted in her correct understanding that both of the Jims would use the committee's probe of the Capitol attack as a platform for spewing the Big Lie and other Trumpy nonsense and conspiracy theories, thus likely derailing the serious work of the committee. Both Jims not only voted to overturn the election results on Jan. 6, but they also both signed onto a request out of Texas asking the Supreme Court to invalidate election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

See Also:  Press Secretary Psaki tells  Mary Alice Parks  about Pres. Biden's trip to Capitol Hill today

In retaliation for Pelosi's move against the Jims, McCarthy pulled all of his Republican picks from the panel, leaving only Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) as GOP members (who joined out of their own volition). Both have been highly critical of Trump for some time and have, at least thus far, taken their assignments very seriously, signing off on all of the committee's subpoenas and publicly supporting each layer of the committee's investigation. Cheney is the committee's vice-chair.

See Also: Peter Doocy is speechless when Jen Psaki asks him what the number one cause of death for police officers was last year (it was Covid!)

But one of the Jims, Jim Banks, is apparently now trying to play dress up — pretending to be a member of the panel probing the insurrection.

See Also: Jen Psaki responds to trump suing over Jan 6 docs, says trump "abused the office" and "attempted to subvert a peaceful transfer of power."

And Cheney made Banks' bizarre maneuverings public on Thursday during a House floor speech. The remarks were made just before the full House voted 229-202 (with a surprising number of Republicans joining) to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress. According to Cheney, Banks apparently has sent letters to various government agencies, claiming to be a ranking member of the Jan. 6 committee. He is most definitely not even a member of the committee, let alone a ranking one. He even reportedly admitted as much in his letters.

See Also: Bari Weiss teaches CNN's Brian Stelter a lesson to remember: The world has gone mad, and it's largely the fault of outlets like CNN.

"I would like to introduce for the record a number of letters the gentlemen from Indiana has been sending to federal agencies, dated September 16, 2021, for example, signing his name as the ranking member of the committee [that] he's just informed the House that he's not on," Cheney said during her House floor remarks today.

See Also: Press Secretary Psaki tells  Mary Alice Parks  about Pres. Biden's trip to Capitol Hill today

Here's a video of her remarks, but I'll dig into one of the letters he reportedly sent below: https://hocdethi.tranganhnam.xyz/2021/10/rand-paul-was-right-nih-sends-letter-to.html

Both CNN and Politico obtained copies of one of Banks' letters, sent to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. In that letter, Banks claimed to be a ranking member of the Jan. 6 committee and asserted that the "minority party" in Congress should be privy to the same information provided to the majority. He requested that any information Haaland shares with the select committee also be sent to him directly. You can read the short, weird letter here, courtesy of Politico reporter Olivia Beavers.