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Nancy Pelosi says it's her "plan" to appoint GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger to Jan. 6 committee

25 July 2021
 Dan Ackermann

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that it is her "plan" to appoint Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) to the House select committee investigating the deadly Jan 6. Capitol riots.

Why it matters: Pelosi's statement to ABC's "This Week" comes after she rejected two of the five Republican appointments offered by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

  • Pelosi's refusal led to McCarthy revoking all of his appointments, later making threats that he would form his own committee.
  • Rep. Liz Cheney (R.-Wyo.) was the lone Republican appointed by Pelosi.
  • Kinzinger has been outspoken in his opposition to Trump and voted for his second impeachment following the Jan. 6 attack, but has yet to comment on if he would join the select committee.

The big picture: Asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether she would be appointing more republicans to the committee, she said, "that would be my plan."

  • Pelosi further clarified that she would make an announcement after she spoke with Kinzinger but emphasized that is the "direction I would be going."
  • "He and other Republicans have expressed an interest to serve on the select committee and I wanted to appoint a three of the members Leader McCarthy suggested but he withdrew their names."

What they're saying: "We have had an unprecedented action, an assault, an insurrection, against our government. An assault on the capitol building, which is an assault on Congress," Pelosi said.

  • “Maybe the Republicans can’t handle the truth, but we have a responsibility to seek it," she added.

What to watch: The committee's first hearing is scheduled for July 27.

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.