Brian Williams had James Carville on last night to talk about Kevin McCarthy's refusal to appoint Republicans to the select committee on 1/6.
"James, I'd like to begin with you and your now famous advice to members of your own party to own that insurrection every day. Hold it up to the Republicans every day," he said.
"The question is, how do you reckon they have done so far this week? I noted some genuine surprise that McCarthy was going to, in effect, pull a Benghazi on this, throw up a bunch of distractions and including but not limited to 'Pelosi didn't have enough security on hand that day.' "
"Well, remember McCarthy, the pathetic glob of protoplasm, he was begging the president for help and everything else. Then he refuses to have the bipartisan committee and now he's doing this. The guy has no sense of shame. It's just -- it's really unbelievable when you look at the actual facts of what happened. And let me tell you something, I know Speaker Pelosi. A lot of people know her better than me, and everybody's judgment is the same. She's tough as nails, and she's not going to let this go.
"And she correctly wants to find out and get to the bottom of one of the greatest criminal acts in the history of the United States. And I think people around the country support this and are just perplexed at how pathetic a human being McCarthy is."
Williams asked Bulwark writer Tim Miller if the Democrats were doing as much as they could to make it more of an investigation than it appears on the surface.
"How about I come back with a scorecard in a couple weeks, Brian? I think that right now Pelosi's first move, I give an A-plus to. You know, I think there certainly, I'm sure, people in her ear saying this needs to have the patina of bipartisanship, and let Jim Jordan, his shirtless -- excuse me me, jacketless nonsense continue on the committee. Let Jim Banks, Tucker Carlson's kid works for him, be on the committee.
"She took a hard line and said, no, we're not going to turn this into a circus, we're going to take this seriously. It's already a bipartisan commission. Liz Cheney is on it. Sounds like maybe she'll add some others, maybe our friend Denver Riggleman, a former rep who's a Republican. And she played hardball on that. I think that was the right first move.
"Some of the officers who served that day are going to be testifying. That's going to be extremely compelling testimony. I think the next challenge will be how much she's able to, and the committee and Betty Thompson and others, are able to put the screws to Mark Meadows and others and force them to testify. Kevin McCarthy might have to testify, anyone with first-hand knowledge of the president's activities that day. So I think that challenge is over the horizon, but her first move was really strong."
