Jayapal Says Corporate-Friendly No Labels Shows ‘True Colors’ by Undermining Jan. 6 Investigation

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal hit back Monday after a corporate-funded dark money group mischaracterized the work of the congressional committee probing the January 6, 2021 insurrection as a “partisan exercise.”

No Labels—a political advocacy group that funds right-wing Democrats and “moderate” Republicans—raised eyebrows on both sides of the aisle after tweeting last week that “despite an early attempt at bipartisanship,” the House select committee investigating the deadly attack on the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen “has become a partisan exercise about which the public is skeptical.”

In a video accusing the committee of partisanship but offering little supporting evidence, No Labels concludes that “the panel is unlikely to produce results that will bring the country together,” largely because less than one-quarter of surveyed Republican voters approve of its work. However, the video does not mention that around two-thirds of Republican voters believe the 2020 election was stolen.

“No group that claims to be looking for real solutions to the problems facing our country can be taken seriously when it tweets out a video that undermines the only real effort to hold perpetrators of the deadly January 6 insurrection accountable, including getting to the bottom of the role of the then-sitting Republican president in inciting a coup attempt to overturn the election,” Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a statement.

“The select committee’s work is essential to helping prevent another insurrection from happening—and potentially succeeding—and to investigating how a former sitting president managed to incite an insurrection to overturn a free and fair election,” she asserted. “Without a robust investigation, we cannot ensure the perpetrators are punished to the full extent of the law. One cannot claim to espouse the importance of bipartisanship and support a world view claiming the committee is ineffective.”

Noting the participation of Republican Reps. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) and Liz Cheney (Wyo.) on the January 6 committee, Jayapal continued:

To malign the January 6 committee as a “partisan exercise” is a dangerous message for the American public and our democracy—one that deeply undermines the committee’s work and denies the truth about the Republican Party. The January 6 committee membership is, indeed, made up of both Democrats and Republicans—but clearly for No Labels, Reps. Kinzinger and Cheney do not count because they have dared to stand up for country over party. The fact that only two Republican members of Congress are willing to be brave enough to seek the truth about what happened is a testament to the brokenness of a Republican Party that still subscribes to the Big Lie.

“I was here on the day of the insurrection and witnessed the violence firsthand. Congress cannot stop working to hold accountable every person involved in the worst attack on the United States Capitol since the War of 1812,” she concluded. “No Labels has thrown any credibility for ‘bipartisanship’ and ‘moderation’ away with this video and shown its true colors.”

Originally published at Commondreams.org, written by Brett Wilkins.