McConnell indicated that he would be open to a commission narrowly focused on security on the Hill.
“We could do something narrow that looks at the Capitol, or we could potentially do something broader to analyze the full scope of the political violence problem in this country,” McConnell added. “We cannot land at some artificial, politicized halfway point.”
McConnell’s comments underscore the steep challenge Democrats face if they hope — as Pelosi suggests — to recreate the spirit of the 9/11 Commission, a bipartisan review of the 2001 terrorist attacks that’s considered a model for intensive after-action reviews of nationally significant moments. Lawmakers have proposed similar “9/11 commissions” for the onset of Covid in America.
McConnell’s remarks come as two Senate committees are pressing on with a joint bipartisan investigation into the security failures that allowed a pro-Trump mob to breach the Capitol while lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
The Senate Homeland Security and Rules committees will hold a hearing next week with officials from the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI — three entities that came under heavy criticism during the panels’ first hearing on Tuesday.
Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and acting D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee told senators that the Pentagon slow-walked their urgent pleas for assistance from the National Guard. They also indicated they were not informed about intelligence reports suggesting that extremist groups were gearing up for violence.
The next hearing, scheduled for next Wednesday, will feature testimony from Robert Salesses, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security; Jill Sanborn, assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division; and Melissa Smislova, who leads the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis.
In addition, senators are expected to be briefed on Capitol security measures later Wednesday by the acting Capitol Police chief and the acting Senate sergeant-at-arms.