July 26, 2021

Brianna Keilar talks about how some GOP house members want Kevin McCarthy to punish Kinzinger and Congresswoman Liz Cheney for joining the panel.

"So, a growing number of Republicans are calling for Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger to be kicked off their other committee assignments for agreeing to join the January 6th select panel," correspondent Melanie Zanona said.

"There were murmurs over the last week. CNN's Ryan Nobles and I are both hearing from members and aides and sources saying this is getting to a point where we're going to potentially push leadership on this. Now, Kevin McCarthy and GOP leaders actually don't have much of an appetite to go this route for a number of reasons, one of them being that Speaker Nancy Pelosi could just reappoint them to those committees anyway.

"The right flank is seen as a very important constituency for Kevin McCarthy who wants to be speaker. At the end of the day, he may feel he has no choice to go this route. So it's something we're keeping an eye on. The members come back today. They've been out of town. we'll keep an eye on it for sure."

She said they serve on the House Armed Services committee.

"These are big committee assignments for them. But at the end of the day, I talked to Cheney and Kinzinger about it. They're not worried about this threat from McCarthy. They're brushing it aside."

"It's not a surprise that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy don't get along that well, but I know you have new reporting about their relationship or lack thereof," Keilar noted.

"It was never great before. They didn't do a lot of communicating, it's mostly done on the staff level. Kevin McCarthy communicates with the majority leader but their relationship is now in the downright gutter. CNN's Manu Raju and I have reporting about a very heated phone call that took place last week when Speaker Pelosi informed McCarthy that she would be vetoing two committees. McCarthy said what you're doing is unprecedented. It all came amid this really whiplash week of power moves over the select committee because after McCarthy pulled his picks, Nancy Pelosi appointed a Republican, Kinzinger. It's all just really contributing to a toxic atmosphere on Capitol Hill," Zanona said.

UPDATE:(Karoli) Toxic atmosphere indeed, though not because of Pelosi.

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