>> weekends on c-span2 are an intellectual feast. every saturday you'll find events and people that explore our nation's past on american history tv, on sundays booktv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. it's television for serious readers. learn, discover, explore. weekends on c-span2. >> host: your thoughts and then let's begin with the speaker of the house who on sundays abc news this week responded to a question about why this select committee was created. >> we had an unprecedented action, , and assault, and insurrection against our government, and assault on the capitol building which is an assault on the congress on a day that the constitution required us, by the constitution, to

validate the work of the electoral college. so this is not just any day of the week. this was a constitutionally required day an action for congress. republicans will say what they will say. our select committee will seek s the truth. it's our patriotic duty to do so and we do not come into our work worried about what the other side who has been afraid of this, maybe the republicans can't handle the truth, but we have a responsibility to seek it, to find it, and in a way that contains the confidence of the american people. >> host: speaker pelosi a losing to the decision by the republican leader kevin mccarthy of california to not have any republican appointee to the select committee after the speaker rejected two of his appointees, congressman jim banks of indiana, congressman

jim jordan of ohio. the speaker did appoint two republicans herself to this committee. that is representative liz cheney a republican of wyoming who just six months ago was in charge of republicans at messaging to she was the number three republican. she was removed from that spotsa by ourur colleagues after she voted to impeach former president trump over the january 6th attack. the speaker on over the weekend also appointed congressman adam kinzinger. here are the democrat serving. the chair of the select committee is bennie thompson democrat of mississippi who's also the chair of the homeland security committee at the house. adam schiff democrat of california who's a chair of the intelligence committee, and zoe lofgren from california who is the chair of the house administration committee who has oversight over the capitolt grounds. also you see the other democrats on your screen as well, congressman i aguilera, stephe murphy of florida, jamie raskin

of maryland and congresswoman luria of virginia all of them serving on this committee this morning. there committee begins their work at 10 a.m. eastern time on c-span3 this morning. president r president, issued a statement last night saying this about the select committee "nancy pelosi is spending a great deal of time, effort, and money on the formulation of a fake committee to ask what happened. will nancy investigate herself and those host: what are your thoughts on this select committee? they begin today, the chair of the committee, bennie thompson,

has said they could call former president trump to testify as well. that from an interview that he gave yesterday. and that nothing is off-limits for the committee. again, 9:30 a.m. eastern time, i misspoke, that's when the coverage begins. they are expected to gavel shortly after that. c-span3 is where you can watch the hearing today. or you can download the free c-span radio app and listen there as well. timothy in new york, republican line. we will go to you first. what are your thoughts on the select committee. caller: i think the select miti is crazy. what did they expect from the, from the riots and stuff like that that they had in the years

before? did they expect the same thing? or different? that's my question. host: ok. timothy, if you were on the select committee, what would you ask? caller: what would i ask? why didn't they, the, the lady in charge of the house call security before this? she knew that this was going to happen. she knew. host: who are you referring to when you say she, the speaker? caller: yes, the speaker. host: ok. democratic line, silver spring. you are next.

caller: i just want to say that i'm really looking forward to this. i know the republicans tried everything they could to not have a bipartisan committee to find out what happened and unfortunately they won't be able to do it that way they wanted, to obfuscate, sorry to say, but i'm happy that liz cheney is there and i'm sorry, i forgot the name of the other republican that is there. they seem like reasonable, intelligent people. host: congressman can zinger. caller: yes, -- congressman kinsinger. caller: yes. and i think liz cheney will be able to stop showboating and i don't republicans have to worry about that. what they need to worry about is that most of the republicans in congress don't want to know the truth. i want to hear from the police officers who were attacked, i want to know what happened to them and what happened to the law and order republicans who were watching this on

television? host: interestingly, congresswoman cheney is going to play the role of the ranking member, which in washington means that she is the top lawmaker from the other side. democrats control the house in the chair is bennie thompson. she's not officially the ranking member of the committee, but democrats are going to let her give an opening statement after the chair gives his opening statement. what do you you -- what do you think about that? caller: i'm not afraid of what she has to say. i do not agree with her and i never agreed with her father, but she's a patriot who believes in the constitution and i like the way she handles her self onto the press and i believe she is a woman of integrity and i want to hear what she has say. host: ok. danny is a republican from

arizona. good morning to you, danny. go ahead. caller: how are you? host: doing well. your thoughts this morning? caller: yes, ma'am, the so-called select committee is a sham, for one thing. and i want to know if it will come out, who was the person that killed that young lady at the capitol that day. thank you. host: ok, shelley, louisiana, republican line. caller: good morning. the way i feel about this is they have two republicans on their committee and both have been overtly against trump, openly, said very poor things about him. so, it's not surprising they let those two republicans on but that they wouldn't accept the choice of the republican leader, mccarthy.

to think that it's anything other than something that would lead dishonest and used for political purposes is just to be fooled. you are having the wool pulled over your eyes if you believe that. host: kevin mccarthy is giving a news conference this morning at 8 a.m., at the top of the hour. we will have coverage of that on c-span two and he will have with him the republican members that he wanted to serve on this committee. wanted to let you and others who are interested know that. jim banks, who was one of those members, republican from indiana , one of two lawmakers rejected by the speaker, as we said, was asked about the speakers decision. he was on fox news sunday. here's what he had to say. [video clip] >> i know you had conversations with any thompson about the

matters at hand and what would be discussed. what do you think blew up the commission last week? >> it's more clear than ever that nancy pelosi isn't interested in an investigation, only by narrative. the reason she booted me from the committee, she claimed, was antics on the part of jim jordan and what she means by that now is that we were prepared to ask questions no one else has asked and demand answers as to why the capital was vulnerable to an attack on january 6. why was there a systemic breakdown of security. if we investigate january 6, why not ask those questions? that's all that this comes down to. she has already predetermined of narrative about donald trump and republicans, she doesn't want to talk about what happened at the capitol that day to make sure something like that never happens again. host: republican banks.

mccarthy wanted him to serve on the select committee and the speaker barred him and jim jordan from doing so. your thoughts on the select committee as they get prepared this morning to hold their first hearing into what happened that day. hot springs, arkansas, democratic caller. caller: how are you doing today? host: doing fine. caller: when they start calling witnesses, the first person i would like to see them call is pence, vice president pence. he could probably tell them more of what actually happened and more of what's going on behind the scenes than anybody else they could call. if they want to call trump, that's good, but he will lie to them and make up a bunch of phony stuff. i want to comment on one thing, that nancy pelosi knew this was going to happen. i didn't know she had a crystal ball. did you know that? host: "the washington post"

editorial board has a list of questions they think committee should ask and they said at the top of the list is precisely what donald trump did before, during, and after the attacks. how did he prepare the speech preceding the insurrection where he told the crowd to fight? what did he anticipate audience reaction to be? when did he know the pro-trump mob was threatening the capital? why did he offer only mild statements after the danger was clear? did they coordinate with extremist groups? answering such questions with calls for subpoenaing mark meadows. along with other white house aides. caller: they are going to get up there and make a lot of false statements to the committee.

pence, supposed to be a good christian man that won't lie? get him up there to see what he has to say about the whole thing, that's what i'd like to see. host: robert, virginia, good morning, what do you think? caller: i would like for them to call trump up there and find out what he knew and someone came on their a while ago and said nancy pelosi knew that this was coming . but all you have got to do is know your history. d.c. do not have control of the national guard. it would have to be the u.s. government, which trump was the head of, the armed services and he did not call those people and did not want them to be there until hours later. that's the reason we have this problem. anybody focused on the

republican defense, you got to be crazy. host: jerry, good morning. caller: yes, ma'am. my name jerry. once again, republicans are trying to change history. we saw what happened that day. they don't want us to know the truth. they say the truth will set you free. i guess they don't want us to be free. thank you so much. >> host: all right, jerry. mark stone sends us this tweet. this is going to end up like the two impeachment hearings the house had during trump administration, very partisan, multiple democrats. they probably already have the report -- >> the u.s. senate is about to gavel in. more work is expected on thehe nomination of todd kim to the assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources division. the justice department's top attorney which oversees its

criminal and civil cases and force the nations environmental laws. about to confirm is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. eastern and if approved he would be the first asian-american to serve in that position. and now live to the floor of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. o god, you are our refuge. give us the wisdom to live, so