Politico reports:

The two House Republicans participating in the Democratic-led investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack issued pointed rejoinders to their party’s leadership, defending their own conservative credibility, during the select panel’s first hearing on Tuesday.

An emotional Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois spent much of his questioning time criticizing fellow Republicans who “have treated this as just another partisan fight.” While he didn’t mention House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy by name, the GOP leader has chastised Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming for serving on the panel, calling them “Pelosi Republicans” in a bid to link them to the Democratic speaker who appointed them.

Kinzinger defended his own voting record on Tuesday: “I’m a Republican. I’m a conservative. But in order to heal from the damage caused that day, we need to call out the facts.” Cheney, during her opening statement, made a similar avowal of her stout conservatism since the Reagan era.

The GOP duo on the committee were among the 35 Republicans who voted to create an independent bipartisan commission to probe the riot, a proposal later blocked by senators in their party. After the hearing, Kinzinger shrugged off warnings from fellow House Republicans that he and Cheney could lose their committee assignments for participating in the select panel, saying that “if people want to get petty, that’s fine.”

During his allotted time at the hearing, Kinzinger blasted fellow Republicans who opposed the creation of the select committee after the failure of the bipartisan commission on Jan. 6. [Continue reading…]