One GOP press conference was held by the party’s House leadership and a second was held by a group of right-wing members of the House caucus.
Here is a fact check of some of claims the lawmakers made on Tuesday.
Republicans minimizing January 6
In an interview with Fox News, Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana — who was blocked by Speaker Nancy Pelosi from serving on the committee investigating the Capitol riot — was asked about those who promoted the narrative that January 6 was a non-violent protest.
“I have yet to meet a Republican in Congress who has minimized and doesn’t believe that what happened on January 6 was serious,” Banks said.
Facts First: Several Republican members of Congress have worked to downplay the events of January 6 and rewrite the facts of what happened.
‘Nonviolent’ rioters locked up as ‘political prisoners’
Right-wing figures — including many who tried to overturn the 2020 election — have pushed the false narrative that tons of Trump supporters are being detained as “political prisoners” in the wake of the January 6 insurrection, and they claim the Biden Justice Department is responsible.
A group of House Republicans pushed this misleading narrative at a press conference Tuesday outside the Justice Department, held shortly after the House committee hearing wrapped up.
Facts First: It’s true that some rioters have complained about their jail conditions. But court records easily debunk Gosar’s lie that these defendants are “nonviolent.” Of the 550 rioters facing charges, only a few dozen are in jail, and most of them are charged with violent crimes.
Regarding the several dozen rioters who are behind bars — they ended up there after a federal judge reviewed the evidence, heard arguments from the Justice Department and the rioters’ attorneys, and ultimately decided that they were too dangerous to release into the community .
Downplaying the number of violent rioters
During his speech, Gosar claimed “nearly 200” of “nonviolent” Capitol rioters are behind bars.
Citing Wray’s comments, Biggs said there was a massive throng of people outside the Capitol, a “much smaller group that entered the Capitol,” and then claimed the smallest and most violent subset was “a very small group that attacked the Capitol police and vandalized the Capitol.”
Facts First: These Republicans are misleadingly playing loose with the numbers. They exaggerated the number of rioters who are still in jail, and undercounted the number of rioters who got violent. While Biggs didn’t specify how many people he considers to be a “very small group,” roughly one-third of all Capitol rioters facing federal charges have been charged with assaulting police.
The vast majority of insurrectionists facing criminal charges have been released from jail shortly after getting arrested. More than 550 people have been charged, according to CNN’s latest tally. Only a few dozen have been detained before trial [ibid to internal database]– and definitely not 200, like Gosar claimed.
But his claim that only “a very small group” of rioters in the Capitol were violent is misleading.
In addition, about 13{31a88af171d246f5211cd608fc1a29f7b3f03dea1b73b7097396b2358ee47fc4} of the 515 rioters were charged with destruction or theft of government property. But some of these defendants overlap with the group of rioters charged with assault.
Pelosi and committee assignment
In a GOP news conference Tuesday morning designed to push back against the House Select Committee hearing on the Jan. 6 riot, Republicans criticized Pelosi for rejecting two of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s five picks to serve on the committee.
Banks, one of the members Pelosi rejected, claimed that the Speaker “cherry picked the members to serve on this committee.”
“She’s prewritten a narrative. Only members who will stick to her talking points are allowed to serve on this committee,” Banks said.
Facts First: This is misleading. McCarthy chose five Republicans to serve on the committee and Pelosi rejected two of those choices, Reps. Banks and Jim Jordan of Ohio. McCarthy then withdrew his three other choices, Reps. Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota and Troy Nehls of Texas. Nehls, along with Jordan and Banks, objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
January 6 security
“There’s questions into the leadership within the structure of the speaker’s office, where they denied the ability to bring the National Guard here,” McCarthy said.
House Republican Whip Steve Scalise said there were questions “about why Speaker Pelosi didn’t make sure that Capitol Police had all the tools they needed to be prepared for that day.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, the number three Republican in the House, said “Nancy Pelosi bears responsibility, as Speaker of the House, for the tragedy that occurred on Jan. 6.”
Facts First: The Speaker of the House is not in charge of Capitol security. That’s the responsibility of the Capitol Police Board, which oversees the US Capitol Police and approves requests for National Guard assistance.
Jane L. Campbell, president and CEO of the US Capitol Historical Society, told CNN that “the Speaker of the House does not oversee security of the US Capitol, nor does this official oversee the Capitol Police Board.”
His request, according to Sund, was not approved. Instead, the Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael C. Stenger “suggested I ask (the National Guard) how quickly we could get support if needed and to ‘lean forward’ in case we had to request assistance on January 6,” according to Sund’s testimony.
Following the events of Jan. 6, the US Capitol Police announced it was working “with Congressional oversight and the Capitol Police Board to obtain the authority to immediately request National Guard assistance if needed without having to wait for board approval.”
