More than five months after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) insists it is “too early” to create a commission to investigate the violence.
During an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Blunt said he thinks his Republican colleagues in the Senate will also agree that it is “too early” for a commission.
Turning his attention to the comparisons to the 9/11 commission, Blunt said, “I think it was 14 months after 9/11, after all, kinds of other information was out there for that commission to look at before that commission got started, and believe me, it would be months before this commission could get started.”
He also asked, “Is the priority to secure the Capitol, to do what we need to do to better train, better prepare Capitol Police, decide what we want to do in the future?”
Or is it to “take, what will be a couple of years in my view, to decide what happened inside the White House.”
Blunt also noted that there is a “bipartisan effort in the Senate with two committees to produce not only a report, but also a number of recommendations, and we should be able to do that in the first full week of June, and we haven’t even waited for that to decide what a commission should do.”
The House voted 252-175 last week to create a commission to investigate the insurrection, which 35 Republicans voting in favor.
However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he opposes the panel.
Additionally, Democrats would need at least 10 Republicans to vote for the commission for it pass the upper chamber.
As of Sunday, four Senate Republicans have expressed support for the commission, while 25 have said they oppose it, and 21 have not said whether they support or oppose it.
