Adrian Smith Lone Tri-State House Member To Vote Against Creating Bi-Partisan Jan 6 Commission

      Only 35 Republicans said yes Wednesday when the U-S House voted to create a commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol, but the group included Liz Cheney of Wyoming, South Dakota’s Dusty Johnson and Don Bacon and Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska.

       Of the House delegations of the three states, only Nebraska 3rd District Congressman Adrian Smith of Gering voted no.

Smith says doesn’t think it’s needed and is afraid it wouldn’t be bi-partisan even though it would have 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans.

Smith released a written statement Thursday to Nebraska media in which he appeared to lay some of the blame for the January attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

      Smith wrote that a “truly non-partisan investigation” of the January 6th events needed to look into both “the fomenting of the protests and of what Speaker Pelosi and her security team knew, when they knew it, and why they weren’t better prepared to protect the Capitol that day.”

      Congressman Fortenberry also released a prepared statement Thursday on his vote for the commission, writing that “most Nebraskans desperately want a return to regular, peaceful order in Washington and the rest of America.”

     Fortenberry said he was hopeful the bipartisan commission would help do that by “honestly, fairly, and thoroughly investigating the truth of what happened on and before January 6, including the culture of political violence that has plagued this country over the last several years.”

     Congressman Smith yesterday also voted against a $1.9-billion dollar Capitol security bill that passed by just 1 vote. He says it’s too big, too vague, and too early.

Smith also says that if a bipartisan security bill can be crafted, the January 6th commission as such isn’t needed.

The chances of the Capitol security bill passing the Senate appear dim.