The House Freedom Caucus asked Republican leadership Friday to seek the ouster of Speaker Nancy Pelosi because the California Democrat blocked two of its members from joining the Jan. 6 select committee.
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus sent a letter to Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy requesting the California Republican file and bring up a privileged motion to vacate the speaker’s chair.
“Speaker Pelosi’s tenure is destroying the House of Representatives and our ability to faithfully represent the people we are here to serve,” the group of Republican lawmakers wrote to Mr. McCarthy.
The one-page letter listed several complaints about the House speaker, the most powerful person on Capitol Hill, but highlighted her “intolerable” handling of the recently established select committee.
Mr. McCarthy, the House’s top Republican, had announced on Monday the names of five members of his party he wanted to serve on the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.
But the House resolution that created the committee permits the speaker to decide its membership, and Mrs. Pelosi objected to two names in particular: Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana.
Mr. McCarthy subsequently pulled all his proposed appointees in protest, and its membership remains uncertain mere days before it convenes on Capitol Hill to hold its first public hearing about Jan. 6.
In the letter, the House Freedom Caucus also complained that House Democrats, led by Mrs. Pelosi, successfully lobbied earlier this year to have another one of its members ejected from two committees.
The letter called it “intolerable” that Mrs. Pelosi let the House unseat Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and said the speaker “has no interest in representative democracy” or protecting institutional norms.
“Republicans under your leadership must show the American people that we will act to protect our ability to represent their interests,” the House Freedom Caucus concluded its letter to the minority leader.
A spokesperson for Mr. McCarthy did not immediately respond to a message requesting comment.
The select committee was established to investigate the events of Jan. 6, when supporters of then-President Trump stormed the Capitol as Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 election he lost.
Mr. Jordan and Mr. Banks were among several House Republicans who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election. They have since been vocally critical of the pending congressional probe.
Ms. Greene also voted against certifying the election results. But she kicked off two House committees in February over revelations about violent rhetoric she previously endorsed online.
The House Freedom Caucus — of which Mr. Jordan, Mr. Banks and Ms. Greene are all members — sent its letter a day after the latter called Mrs. Pelosi “unfit to serve” as said that she should vacate the chair.
“We as a conference need to do it. So I hope our leadership is strong enough to do that,” Ms. Greene said about Mrs. Pelosi on Real America’s Voice. “We have no confidence in her as speaker of the House.”
The letter to Mr. McCarthy said that House rules state any “resolution causing a vacancy in the Office of Speaker shall not be privileged except if offered by direction of a party caucus or conference.”
Any potential effort by the GOP to move toward ousting Mrs. Pelosi would likely fail in the House, however, where Democrats led by the speaker currently outnumber Republicans to the tune of 220-211.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.