Senate GOP now ready to filibuster Capitol riot commission after McConnell's ‘despicable’ effort to block it
Senate Republicans are prepared to filibuster the proposed Jan. 6 commission, Politico reported on Thursday.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had been getting personal in his effort to block the independent commission.
The Kentucky Republican has reached out to undecided GOP senators and asked them to vote against legislation that would form a commission to investigate the U.S. Capitol riot as a "personal favor," according to CNN's Jamie Gangel.
"I'm told the senators were really caught by surprise at his using of that kind of language and just how insistent he's been," Gangel reported. "One Republican source said to me, quote, 'No one can understand why Mitch is going to this extreme of asking for a personal favor to kill the commission."
"'How can you have an attack on the Capitol and the Republican leader is saying vote against it,'" she added, quoting that same source. "'It is despicable.'"
But McConnell's efforts appear to have paid off. According to Politico, several Senate Republicans have decided against advancing the commission.
"McConnell seemed to lock up the 41 votes against that he needed despite a last-minute pro-commission lobbying push by the mother and girlfriend of fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after responding to the siege," the publication reported.
Mitch McConnell has reached out to certain Republican Senators and asked them to vote against the commission as “a… https://t.co/2auAIGKRDe
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