SC Sens. Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott vote to block commission on Jan. 6 Capitol riot
Both of South Carolina’s U.S. senators voted to block an independent commission on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Senate Democrats tried to invoke cloture on Friday to bring a vote on creating the commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riot, when supporters of former President Donald Trump clashed with police and stormed the Capitol where Congress was certifying the election of Joe Biden as president. However, only 54 senators voted in favor of cloture, short of the required 60 votes required to move the legislation forward.
Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, both Republicans, were among the 35 senators voting against cloture. Nine Republican senators and two Democrats didn’t vote, according to CNN.
“I oppose the House-passed bill as I believe the commission approach will turn into a partisan food fight,” Graham said in a statement Thursday night. “The December deadline for the Commission to finish its work speaks more to political calculations than fact-finding.”
Scott’s office did not immediately comment on the vote.
Graham said the Department of Justice continues to investigate the riot and the events before, during and after the Capitol riot.
More than 400 people already have been charged in connection to the riot.
Both Graham and Scott met with Gladys Sicknick, the mother of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick who died from injuries in the riot, as well Sicknick’s girlfriend Sandra Garza, Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, and D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Mike Fanone about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Graham released the statement after the meeting.
“I am committed to making sure the story of Jan. 6 is fully and completely told,” Graham said.
Graham said Fanone and Dunn’s testimony should be put into the public record along with other officers who responded that day.
“Further, we should establish a system that will hold people who were in charge of security at the Capitol on Jan. 6 accountable,” Graham said.
The House approved the moving forward with the commission in a 252-217 vote. U.S. Reps. Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia, and Tom Rice, R-Myrtle Beach, voted in favor of establishing the commission. Rice, who also voted to impeach then-President Trump, was the only South Carolina Republican in Congress to vote for the commission.
This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 2:57 PM.
