'This is personal for me': Ex-RNC head drops the hammer on the GOP for blocking the Capitol riot commission

Appearing on MSNBC on Saturday morning, former Republican National Committee head Michael Steele ripped into the Republican Party and leadership for killing plans for a bipartisan commission that would be tasked with investigating the Jan 6th Capitol riots.

Following up on a tweet he posted on Twitter after the Friday vote where he called the GOP senators who voted against the plan "Pathetic cowards," Steele expressed his dismay with people in the party who opposed it, saying many are his friends.

Speaking with MSNBC host Ali Velshi, Steele started off by explaining that the impact of the "no" vote was "personal" for him.

"This is personal for me, and those two words were just -- I don't know. that was the only way I could put it, Ali, was to kind of say, look at -- look at the members of my team, you know, guys that I have known and worked with over many, many years who once stood for something, once said something that meant a lot and could mean a lot to people, just buckle," he began.

"Buckled because [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell wanted them to buckle, because [Donald] Trump wanted them to," he continued. "Buckled because [House Minority Leader Kevin] McCarthy wanted them to. There was no leadership there, and that's what that moment called for."

"I just don't know, Ali," he added. "I kind of look at this and just say to myself, 'where do you go from here, what do you say next to the American people?' How do you now come on the other side of this vote or non-vote and say to Brian Sicknick's mother, you know, what? What do you say to her? She walked the halls of our Congress trying to get people to do the right thing, to vote to just find out why her son died -- and the arrogance..."

Watch below:

MSNBC 05 29 2021 09 10 36youtu.be