On Thursday, Axios' Hans Nichols reported that Jen Psaki told the outlet that President Joe Biden will not appoint his own January 6 commission, as he prefers Congress pass such legislation to do so.
Nichols cites Psaki who said, "Congress was attacked on that day, and President Biden firmly agrees with Speaker Pelosi that Congress itself has a unique role and ability to carry out that investigation. Because of that, the president doesn't plan to appoint his own commission."
As Mary Clare Jalonick reported for AP on Wednesday, "Pelosi rules out having Biden create Jan. 6 commission." The speaker felt it was "not a workable idea in this circumstance," since it would still need congressional approval for money and subpoena authority.
Jalonick noted possible outcomes for the commission actually happening, beyond President Biden taking the lead:
The first option, Pelosi said, is to give the Senate another chance to vote on the commission. Six Republicans voted with Democrats to move forward with the bill, and a seventh missed the vote but said he would have backed it. That means Democrats would only need support from three additional Republicans to reach the 60 votes needed for passage. The commission would be modeled after a highly respected panel that investigated the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The other options involve the House investigating the attack, meaning the probes would be inherently partisan. Pelosi suggested that she could appoint a new select committee to investigate the siege or give the responsibility to a single committee, like the House Homeland Security panel, which wrote the original bipartisan bill to create the commission. Alternately, Pelosi said committees could simply push ahead with their own investigations that are already underway.
The first part of this second option could backfire on Democrats, as it could feed the narrative from Republican leadership that the commission is designed to hurt Republicans for the 2022 midterms.
McConnell and Senate GOP leaders have been confident for days that 10 senators wouldn’t break ranks. McConnell’s argument, which he’s voiced publicly and privately, is that the commission probe would become an issue in the midterms — and that has been the prevailing view among Rs
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 27, 2021
The second part of that option has actually been a reason against passing a bill for a January 6 commission, as other investigations are underway.
As we reported last weekend, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has made it known he could bring the bill back to the floor for another vote.
Last Friday's bill was defeated in a vote of 54-35, Spencer reported it did not have the required support from 10 Republicans to proceed.