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House rejects GOP effort to seat McCarthy's choices for Jan. 6 select panel

26 July 2021
Dan Ackermann

The House on Monday voted 218-197 to defeat Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's attempt to seat his preferred members for the Jan. 6 select committee.

Why it matters: Speaker Nancy Pelosi has vetoed two of the five Republicans McCarthy named to the panel, citing their vote against the certification of the 2020 election. McCarthy has since threatened to launch a parallel GOP investigation if she does not allow his picks.

  • The House vote comes a day before the panel's first hearing, which will feature testimonies from four police officers who were injured during the Capitol insurrection.

State of play: Last week, Pelosi vetoed McCarthy's decision to name Reps. Reps. Jim Banks (Ind.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) to the panel, arguing they would jeopardize the investigation.

  • In response, McCarthy boycotted the committee and introduced a resolution to formally "condemn the refusal" of Pelosi to seat all five of his picks.
  • Her refusal "directly harms the legitimacy, credibility and integrity of the proceedings of the select committee," the resolution states.

Of note: Pelosi has now tapped Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), who voted to impeach the president, to fill in one of the vacancies. He joins Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of Pelosi's original eight picks for the panel.

  • Both voted with Democrats to table McCarthy's resolution.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.