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Good morning, Playbookers. It's Thursday, July 15th. I'm Ragu Manovalin.

And this is your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.

All right. Back in 2019, the House Intelligence Committee was about to kick off public hearings for Donald Trump's first impeachment.

Trump and his allies pressed Kevin McCarthy to yank centrist's Republicans from the panel

and installed the president's most vocal allies instead.

They wanted people like representatives Elise Stefanik and Wilhard gone,

replaced with Trump's future chief of staff Mark Meadows or Matt Gates.

Here's the thing, though, McCarthy wouldn't do it. The GOP leader knew Trump diehards would appease the president,

but they would also repel swing voters whom he wanted to convince that the impeachment effort was a sham.

To this day, many GOP lawmakers think the decision was one reason. Impeachment never drew significant bipartisan public support.

Some 18 months later, McCarthy is in essentially the same position,

about to decide which Republicans to appoint to the special committee

on the January 6th Siege of the Capitol.

Some GOP lawmakers want him to refuse to name any members at all in protest.

Others on the far right are lobbying for representatives like Gates Marjorie Taylor Green

or Lauren Bobert. If the past is prologue,

McCarthy will again put at least some moderate members out front, and hope they're the most

effective agents to blunt any political fallout for his members. His office declined to comment,

but we hear he hasn't named any members in part because he's still

thinking through his strategy. Let's break down some of his options. He could name a Republican

who voted to impeach Trump, but then voted against the creation of a special committee. Someone

...