Republicans oppose the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the assault on the Capitol

Senate Republican Monopoly Leader Mitch McConnell on Capitol Hill in Washington.EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / Reuters

The minority leader in the Senate, Republican Mitch McConnell, told his party colleagues on Wednesday that he opposes the creation of an independent commission to investigate the assault on the Capitol on January 6 led by supporters of Donald Trump . The former president and the minority leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, have also shown their rejection of the bill that seeks to form a panel made up of five Republicans and five Democrats. The position of the leaders of the conservative party anticipate that it will be difficult to have the necessary votes for the proposal to be approved in the Senate.

"After careful consideration, I have made the decision to oppose the biased and unbalanced proposal of the Democrats of the House of Representatives for another commission to study the events of January 6," McConnell explained this Wednesday in the Senate, arguing that it seems to him that the current investigation teams are sufficient.

For their part, the two leaders of the 9/11 commission, Republican Tom Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton, urged through a statement that legislation based on the commission they headed after the 2001 terrorist attack be passed. .

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The bill states that the bipartisan commission may consider "the influencing factors that fostered such an attack on US representative democracy while participating in a constitutional process" such as, for example, the role that Trump played before and during the attack on the Capitol. For the proposal to go ahead it needs the support of 10 Republican senators. Seven of them broke ranks with the Conservative party and voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 riots. They are expected to support the creation of the commission, but McConnell's stance may incite the rest of the bloc to oppose the bill.

The most likely scenario is that the proposal will be approved this Wednesday afternoon in the House of Representatives, controlled by the Democrats, but that when it reaches the Senate some Republicans will use the filibuster technique (which allows the minority to delay decisions until they sink them ). "The American people will see for themselves whether our Republican friends are on the side of the truth or on the side of Donald Trump's big lie," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said this morning.

McConnell, a loyal Trump squire during his administration, accused the former president in late January of spurring the mob that stormed the Capitol on a dark day for American democracy that left five dead in its path.

The Kentucky senator, who voted to acquit Trump in his second impeachment of the charge of inciting the insurrection, claimed after the New Yorker had been "practically and morally responsible" for the attack.

On Tuesday night Trump publicly opposed the creation of the commission, calling it a "Democratic trap."

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