Last Updated on May 28, 2021
Six Republican senators voted with Democrats to create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the events and civil unrest that occurred in and around the U.S. Capitol building on January 6. The bill ultimately failed 54-35, as Democrats were unable to get the 60 required votes.
The Republican Senators who voted with Democrats to hold the 9/11-style commission into the events of January 6 are Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Susan Collins (R-ME), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Rob Portman (R-OH). Of those six Republicans, only Portman voted not to impeach President Trump during his second impeachment vote, with Romney having also voted to convict him during the initial attempt by Democrats. Even with these Republicans backing the plan, the vote did not pass the 60 vote threshold required.
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Earlier this month, the vote was passed in the House, with 35 Republicans joining every present Democrat to start the commission into the Capitol Hill protests. Despite Democrat claims that the protest was a violent “insurrection,”, only the death of Ashli Babbitt, a peaceful protestor shot by police, was deemed to be a homicide. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who the mainstream media had initially claimed was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher by “white supremacists,” was ruled to have died of natural causes, after he suffered two strokes cause by a blood clot in his brain stem. (READ MORE: Lawyer for Ashli Babbitt’s Family Says That Officer Who Shot Her Did Not Issue Verbal Warning)
The number of Republicans who sided with Democrats on the January 6 commission vote becomes especially notable when considering that – at President Donald Trump’s insistence – both House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated they would not support such a commission, and thus, neither should members of the Republican Party in their respective chambers.
However, McConnell had previously reportedly threatened to instruct a critical number of Republicans to join the effort to impeach President Trump should the 45th President have pardoned individuals without McConnell’s permission, and the two have feuded repeatedly since McConnell’s messaging resulted in the loss of two Senate seats in Georgia.
