'The absolute worst excuse': Kevin McCarthy roasted for blaming gas prices on the January 6th investigation

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) blamed rising gas prices on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol shortly before it held its fourth public hearing on the evidence that it has amassed in its ongoing probe.

McCarthy said on Thursday that he does not "regret not appointing anybody at all" to join the bipartisan panel, which over the last 11 months has concluded that enough proof has emerged for the Justice Department to indict former President Donald Trump in the scheme to overturn the 2020 election and install himself into a second term.

McCarthy, who along with the House GOP caucus chose to not cooperate with the congressional January 6th inquiry, sees things differently.

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"How can you have an honest investigation if the Speaker [Nancy Pelosi (D-California)] can appoint and pick and choose who can be on? How can the Speaker select a chairman who voted to override a Republican presidential election?" McCarthy stewed, referring to Representative Benny Thompson's (D-Mississippi) objection to certifying then-President George W. Bush's Electoral College victory over the Democratic Party's nominee, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, in January 2005.

Thompson was one of 31 lawmakers to do so because of rumors that "numerous, serious election irregularities" caused "a significant disenfranchisement of voters," specifically in Ohio, and had swung the race toward Bush. But Kerry had already conceded to the incumbent, Bush, by the time Congress convened, and the effort ultimately went nowhere.

That is a significant distinction compared to the circumstances in 2021 when Trump cried foul – a baseless allegation that McCarthy has both defended and distanced himself – and incited a mob to storm the halls of Congress to disrupt the certification of Biden's win and to assassinate Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence.

Nevertheless, McCarthy continued, suggesting that the Select Committee is a partisan sham.

"And how can the chairman start the whole investigation by saying, 'one person is off-limits?' How can that person be off-limits, the Speaker, when the Senate in a bipartisan manner investigated, but the only people who did not work with them or coordinate or collaborate with them was the Speaker's office, the Sargeant-at-Arms, on what went through all that day?" he said.

"So no, that's a political appointment, it's a political committee," McCarthy added, "and the one thing I do know, and the American public knows, gas has gone up $1.86 a gallon since the day Nancy Pelosi announced that committee."

Watch below via The Hill:

For observers on social media, one glaring problem is that House Republicans unanimously torpedoed legislation aimed at ending price gouging by fossil fuel companies, which are raking in record profits.

Others noted that McCarthy provided nothing to back up his claim.