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PRESENTED BY

BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN
WITH MAX COHEN AND CHRISTIAN HALL

THE TOP

Bulletin: AP/Kabul: “US hands Bagram Airfield to Afghans after nearly 20 years,” by Kathy Gannon in Kabul, Afghanistan

So let’s start with this: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is going to appoint Republicans to the Jan. 6 special committee, barring some unexpected development. He’d be silly not to.

McCarthy has five seats to fill on the select committee. We’ve done a good deal of reporting to try to project what McCarthy’s looking for on the committee, and who he might turn to to serve. 

→ Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Jordan and McCarthy once loathed each other, but former President Donald Trump brought them together. Now, they’ve gotten into a good vibe with one another — and McCarthy could use that on the team. Jordan has been through the Benghazi select committee and impeachment and is generally seen as a “captain” of any Republican team. Jordan has brawled with Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), and he understands how they operate.

→ Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.). Johnson is a lawyer — which McCarthy could use. He has the added benefit of having been through impeachment; Johnson served as one of the former president’s top defenders during Trump’s first Senate trial. 

→ Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.). Armstrong is a former state party chair and is seen internally as a smart political player. He did not object to the 2020 election results, which is also a plus.

→ Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.). Banks is Washington’s Most Eager Man — a title he has taken from former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Banks, the chair of the once powerful Republican Study Committee, wants to be prominent and in leadership, and everyone in the Republican Conference knows it. He’s willing to speak publicly and rarely strays from the party’s talking points.

→ Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) or Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.): Both of them are on the Committee on House Administration, and that’s something McCarthy needs on this committee. Why? Because the panel controls the House and half of the Capitol complex. And for a committee looking into the attack on the Capitol, that kind of knowledge is useful. We’d probably say Davis is the better choice here — he’s more senior, and he really knows his stuff. Plus, his Democratic counterpart — Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) — is on the committee already, and it would be useful to have him as the Republican counterweight.

→ Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) or Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.): McCarthy needs to appoint a woman to the committee, and these are two of the best in his conference. Both have taken on critical assignments for the GOP — Stefanik is in leadership and Walorski is the top Republican on the House Ethics Committee. Stefanik has a slight edge just because of her public persona. 

→ Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.) or Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas): McCarthy could benefit from a law enforcement officer on the panel, and both Rutherford and Nehls are former sheriffs. This is good because dozens of U.S. Capitol Police officers were injured — some very seriously — during the Jan. 6 attack. The GOP messaging on that angle has been poor, and one of those members could help address that shortfall.

It’s important to remember this: thanks to the resolution that the House passed establishing the select committee, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has a veto on who McCarthy can appoint. Which means McCarthy can’t just turn to someone like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to try to disrupt the panel, as Pelosi would never sign off on the pick. We don’t think McCarthy would put MTG on the panel, but you catch our drift.

There’s also no time limit on how long the select committee can run. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who will chair the panel, has already indicated it will extend into 2022. So anyone who serves on it is going to face a significant time commitment if they’re going to play a meaningful role.

So to whichever lucky Republicans who get picked for this post, congratulations!

THE UPPER HAND

Pelosi vs. McCarthy on the Jan. 6 investigation

In the four-and-a-half months since Speaker Nancy Pelosi first raised the idea of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, she and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have been locked in a slow-motion struggle over the issue.

It’s been a series of moves and countermoves, with Pelosi finally naming members of a select committee on Thursday. 

And once again, as she has throughout this period, Pelosi pulled another one on McCarthy — GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who was the number three House Republican until mid-May, agreed to be one of the speaker’s picks for the panel. This came a day after we reported that McCarthy had told GOP freshmen that any Republican who accepts a committee assignment from Pelosi may need to get all their committee assignments from Democrats.

That veiled threat failed to faze Cheney. She didn’t even bother to give McCarthy a heads-up about her decision to serve on the panel. “I think it’s clear to all the people on this committee that our oath to the Constitution, our duty, our dedication to the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power has to come above any concern about partisanship or about politics,” Cheney told reporters. “That’s crucially important.”

Since Feb. 15, when she first called for a bipartisan commission to look into the insurrection by supporters of former President Donald Trump, Pelosi has repeatedly forced McCarthy back on the defensive.  Pelosi has tried to push him into a political choice she knows McCarthy can’t make: between Trump, still the most powerful figure in the Republican Party and someone McCarthy can’t afford to alienate if he ever wants to become speaker, and his own responsibility toward the Congress as an institution.

Pelosi, in fact, has tried to make McCarthy himself the issue, and to a point, she’s succeeded. McCarthy has faced numerous questions about his interactions with Trump on Jan. 6. Many Democrats want to see him interviewed by the select committee, although it’s unclear whether that will happen. If it does, don’t be surprised if McCarthy asks the committee to interview Pelosi about her own actions on Jan. 6.

McCarthy initially objected in February to the number of GOP and Democratic seats on the proposed panel, and on how subpoenas would be issued, Pelosi agreed to his suggestions, only to have McCarthy change his position and raise a completely different objection over the scope of the investigation.

When Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chair of the Homeland Security Committee, cut a deal in mid-May with GOP Rep. John Katko (N.Y.), ranking member on Homeland, over legislation to create a bipartisan commission, McCarthy ended up publicly repudiating the agreement his own member made. Thirty-five House Republicans voted for the bill anyway, only to see it blocked by Senate Republicans.

And now with Cheney on the select committee, Pelosi has once more forced McCarthy into a tough situation. Compared to the proposal that Thompson and Katko hashed out — or the compromise floated by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) — the select committee approved by the House is bad format for McCarthy and the Republicans. There’s no time limit on the investigation, Republicans have no say in who or how many subpoenas can be issued and Pelosi has a veto over McCarthy’s appointments.

Even Republicans’ best arguments — that Democrats are just trying to use the Jan. 6 attack against the GOP in 2022 and the current standing committees, as well as the FBI and Justice Department, could handle the probe  — have been blunted by what’s happened during the last four-plus months. 

The media coverage will focus on Trump’s actions that day, what other Trump administration officials said and did, the Trump-McCarthy phone call and how the deployment of the National Guard was delayed — mostly issues Republicans don’t like. McCarthy and his GOP allies will try to call into question security failures leading up to the attack, blaming Pelosi for the lack of preparation, yet Republicans can’t go too far in criticizing the U.S. Capitol Police, dozens of whose officers were injured during the bloody insurrection.

And all the while, Trump will be out there watching, complaining about any signs of GOP weakness he sees.

McCarthy and House Republicans may very well win the House in 2022. History and redistricting are on their side. But McCarthy and the party will face questions over Jan. 6 right up until Election Day.

BIG COMMITTEE MOVE

Energy and Commerce staff director shuffle

Jeff Carroll, the longtime top aide to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), is leaving the panel at the beginning of August.

Carroll will be replaced as staff director on E&C by Tiffany Guarascio, currently the deputy staff director. Guarascio will be the first woman to serve as staff director on the powerful panel, which has jurisdiction over a huge chunk of the legislation that moves through the House. Waverly Gordon, now general counsel, will become deputy staff director and general counsel.

Carroll has worked for Pallone since graduating from George Washington University in 1997. In 2015, after Pallone became the  ranking member on Energy and Commerce, Carroll moved over to serve as the top Democratic staffer on the panel.

“After 25 years of outstanding service, Jeff Carroll will leave Capitol Hill for the last time as a public servant at the beginning of August,” Pallone said in a statement. “Over the years, he has become my most trusted adviser, and he is known to Members and staff for his candor, political savvy, and commitment to the little guy.”

Guarascio has served as deputy staff director of Energy and Commerce since 2015, and until 2019 served as both deputy staff director and chief health adviser.

Gordon joined the Energy and Commerce Committee in 2015 as a counsel on public health. By 2020, she’d become general counsel. Gordon came to the Hill in 2012 as an aide to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).

HOW IT’S PLAYING

MOMENTS

10:15 a.m.: President Joe Biden will speak about the June jobs numbers, which will be released at 8:30 a.m.

11:40 a.m.: Biden will welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers to the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris will attend.

12:30 p.m.: Biden and Harris will have lunch. … Jen Psaki will brief reporters.

2:30 p.m.: Biden will participate in a naturalization ceremony.

3:45 p.m.: Harris will fly to Los Angeles.

5 p.m.: Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will speak to a meeting of the National Education Association at the convention center.

CLIP FILE

NYT

→ News Analysis: “Trump Was Not Indicted. But the Charges Still Threaten Him,” by Jonah Bromwich, William Rashbaum, Ben Protess and Maggie Haberman: “While there is no indication that Mr. Trump himself will face criminal charges anytime soon, the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., has said that ‘the work continues,’ and the former president will remain the focus of the investigation as prosecutors exert pressure on Mr. Weisselberg to cooperate. Mr. Trump has escaped numerous law enforcement inquiries over the better part of three decades, and he could well do so again. Even so, the case brought by Mr. Vance on Thursday has already struck at the heart of Mr. Trump’s public image — the business of the businessman — in a way no other investigation has done.”

WaPo

→ “Trump seeks to use indictments as a political rallying cry as he tries to survive latest legal threat,” by Josh Dawsey

→ “Trump, fighting to toss out subpoena, offered to give House Democrats peek at financial statements,” by Spencer Hsu: “Former president Donald Trump has offered to give House Democrats a peek at financial statements related to his complex business empire from before his 2016 presidential bid and eight years of contracts with his accounting firm, but refused to divulge more sensitive source data or internal communications, his lawyers told a federal judge Thursday.

“The disclosure of the offer, made in late June in unsuccessful court-ordered mediation, came as Trump urged a federal judge in Washington to end a stalemate and toss out a 2019 House subpoena for eight years of his financial records, calling the congressional demand unconstitutional and unenforceable.”

→ “Federal executions halted as Justice Dept. reviews Trump-era policies,” by Devlin Barrett and Amy Wang

WSJ

→ “U.S. Wins International Backing for Global Minimum Tax,” by Paul Hannon and Kate Davison

Politico

→ “‘Unlike anything I’ve seen at the FTC’: Biden’s chair makes her public debut,” by Leah Nylen

USA Today

→ “Boy Scouts offer to compensate sexual abuse victims in historic $850 million bankruptcy settlement” by Jordan Mendoza

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