Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, left, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy address reporters outside the White House. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
06/08/2022 04:30 AM EDT
The Jan. 6 attack hit both chambers of Congress. But House and Senate Republicans are breaking apart in their response to riot hearings: One side’s pushing back, and the other is ready to move on.
After months of investigations, the House select panel will begin revealing their findings about the Capitol siege and Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 win. There’s no unified strategy among Republicans on how much time and energy they should expend on rebutting the hearings, particularly with lawmakers questioning how much breaks through beyond the Beltway.
On one side of the building, House Republicans are launching a full-on counter-messaging effort, including responses on social media, TV hits and conducting their own unofficial probe into Capitol security. In the Senate, GOP leadership is essentially shrugging at the hearings: Minority Whip John Thune (S.D.) indicated that he didn’t expect a formal response to the hearings and that his conference is focused elsewhere.
“It’s the future, not the past,” Thune said in a brief interview.
It’s the latest sign of an ongoing rift between House and Senate Republicans, particularly on false claims of 2020 election fraud and how to handle Trump’s continued hold on the party. The GOP has also split on opposite...
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