Juan Williams: Jan. 6 Select Committee Report ‘Will Be Ignored By Most Republicans’ Because They ‘Prefer Trump’s Fantasies’

Although Juan Williams is no longer on Fox News’ “The Five,” he still is writing op-eds for The Hill and today, he released one regarding the recently announced Jan. 6 House select committee.

Williams claimed in the title that “Republicans prefer Trump’s fantasies over truth and facts” and in the piece, he said that regardless of the results of the report, it would be “Ignored by most Republicans.”

As for the appointed of U.S. House Rep Liz Cheney (R-WY) to the committee, “It is not going to make a difference. Republicans now define loyalty by one measure — the willingness to jump headfirst into former President Trump’s delusional claims of massive voter fraud to explain why he lost the 2020 election,” Williams insisted.

Williams believes that “(U.S. House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi (R-CA) felt the need for bipartisanship because House Republicans initially looked inclined to boycott the probe by not naming any Republicans to the committee. In the Senate, Republicans blocked an independent investigation.”

“Republicans in Congress are even willing to close their eyes to a disease taking the lives of their constituents,” Williams lamented as well in the piece.

It was recently reported that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is planning to appoint Republicans to the select committee after initial uncertainty.

According to ABC News, a senior GOP aide familiar with the process said there are ongoing efforts to decide which members to appoint, with some likely being allies of Trump.

Whether or not Pelosi and the Democrats approve those appointments remains to be seen, however, and what effect they would have on the decisions of the committee as well.

An article in The Hill today addressed some of the conflicts that McCarthy is facing in appointing members:

Formally, his picks need approval from Democratic leaders, who wrote the rules for the panel. Informally, McCarthy’s choices can’t upset former President Trump, who remains the party’s kingmaker. And internally, they can’t alienate one faction of McCarthy’s conference or another, which could threaten his chances of becoming Speaker if the House flips in next year’s midterm elections.

Yet there’s a fourth complication, as well: A number of lawmakers say they’re simply not interested in being on the committee.

“It’s not on Rep. Upton’s bucket list to serve on the select committee,” said Billy Fuerst, a spokesman for Fred Upton, the veteran Michigan Republican.

Upton is hardly alone. The Hill last week contacted the offices of 30 Republicans who had supported an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack. Only two would comment for this story – Upton and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (N.Y.) – and neither indicated the slightest desire to serve on the panel.

“The Select Committee is not about getting answers, it’s just another platform for Democrats to bash Republicans,” Garbarino said in a statement lamenting that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had not applied the rules of the independent commission to the select committee.

“The best any Republican participants can hope for,” he added, “is to push back on whatever partisan divisive claims Democratic members make throughout this process.”

Despite the criticism, there are political advantages to the select committee for GOP lawmakers, who will have an easier time bashing Pelosi’s creation than they would the independent commission, which was negotiated and endorsed by Rep. John Katko (N.Y.), the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee.

“The select committee allows Republicans to attack it a little more than they would with an independent commission,” a GOP aide told The Hill.

But the reluctance of lawmakers to participate on the panel – or even to talk about it with the press – also hints at some of the potential pitfalls facing McCarthy and Republicans as the process evolves.