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Speaker nancy pelosi. so instead of boycotting this panel and threatening to punish republicans who participated, mccarthy will now enlist a handful to play defense. this is new reporting from our capitol hill reporter and also joining us to discuss is mike rodgers, a former republican congressman. he s now a national security contributor for us and the host of the cnn original series declassified. it s great to have both of your voices and your presence with us. melanie, let s talk about your reporting first. what brought about this change in mccarthy s thinking? initially there was a debate inside the house gop about whether to boycott this altogether as a way to paint it as partisan. once nancy pelosi appointed liz cheney which will ensure that democrats have bipartisan buy-in, it became clear that the boycott strategy was no longer a viable option for the gop. instead i m told kevin mccarthy is indeed planning on appointing ....
Is not just finding the right person but someone that wants to do it. what is his political calculation here? why is he doing this? early on there was the question to put people forward and how long do you expect this to go on? there was a debate to boycott it, to make it partisan. once speaker nancy pelosi appointed liz cheney a republican to her side of the committee it was much more difficult for republicans to do the boycott strategy and they want members there, republicans to push back, try to shape the counter narrative and play defense for donald trump. as far as timing they have no end date. this could very well drag into next year, an election year and the inspected bipartisan commission that the senate gop blocked would have required the panel to wrap up its work by the end of the year and you have to wonder if republicans regret voting against that commission. i remember that s a sticking point for the republicans at the time. i want to talk about the capitol ....
Members on the committee? chris, i think it s a colossal waste of time. we ve had four bipartisan investigations of this already. i don t think it makes sense, really, for democrats to participate. i think it s just a tremendous red herring and a waste of taxpayer resources. in this internal debate that democrats have been having, congressman schiff has been on the side that said, boycott the republicans benghazi committee. call the committee what we think it is, which is a circus and a stunt and a waste of time. congressman schiff speaking out for the boycott strategy over the elijah cumming strategy. and while that debate played out inside the democratic party, the democrats have also been negotiating with house speaker john boehner about what the committee s going to be like and how it s going to function. today nancy pelosi announced that those talks with the speaker were over and that democrats had made a decision about what to do. and i have to say, i did not see this coming ....
For the boycott strategy over the elijah cumming strategy. and while that debate played out inside the democratic party, the democrats have also been negotiating with house speaker john boehner about what the committee s going to be like and how it s going to function. today nancy pelosi announced that those talks with the speaker were over and that democrats had made a decision about what to do. and i have to say, i did not see this coming. not like this. over the past two weeks, we have engaged in good faith discussions with speaker boehner on the shape and standards of the select committee. we had hoped for a level of fairness and transparency and balance, especially considering the subject matter. we were not able to reach any agreement. regrettably, the republican approach does not prevent the unacceptable and repeated abuses committed by chairman issa in any meaningful way. that is all the more reason for democrats to participate in the committee, to be there to fight ....
Committee produced a report that contained all of two sentences on how president bush maybe, maybe could have responded a little better to hurricane katrina. and when republicans reached that laughably partisan conclusion, democrats had the advantage of not having been dragged into it. they never signed on to that. and so, basically, they won a round. and everybody laughed off that report and it disappeared as the republicans effort to whitewash their own party s failures. that s strategy number one, the boycott strategy. strategy number two, i like to think of as the elijah cummings strategy. this is the one where you decide to show up, knowing that you have no real power in the room, other than give the other side a chance to make themselves look terrible. and when it works, it works like this. ladies and gentlemen, seeking the truth is the obligation of this committee. i can see no point in going further. i have no expectation that miss learner will cooperate with this we and the ....