First on CNN: Former DHS secretaries tell Senate to ‘put politics aside’ and support January 6 commission

A group of former Homeland Security secretaries who served in both Republican and Democratic administrations is calling on the Senate “to put politics aside” and create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, according to a joint statement provided first to CNN.

The statement, released by former Homeland Security Secretaries Michael Chertoff, Tom Ridge, Janet Napolitano and Jeh Johnson, went on to say that “we must understand how the violent insurrection at the Capitol came together to ensure the peaceful transfer of power in our country is never so threatened again.”

The former secretaries’ statement comes as Republicans have sought to block a bill that would create a January 6 commission, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asking Republican senators to oppose the bill as a “personal favor” to him, CNN reported Thursday. A procedural vote on a bill creating the panel is expected to fail later Thursday.

The 10-member bipartisan commission proposed by House lawmakers earlier this month would be modeled after the panel that investigated the September 11 terrorist attacks. Those attacks spurred the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to better coordinate federal, state and local entities against domestic and foreign threats to the US. Ridge, the first Homeland Security secretary, was among those called to testify before the 9/11 commission.