2 years after the Jan. 6 insurrection, election deniers are still in the building — and holding the speakership hostage

• Rep. Kevin McCarthy lost his eleventh bid for House speaker on Thursday evening.
• A group of 20 ultra-conservative Republicans continues to stonewall his leadership ambitions.

On the eve of January 6, 2023, a group of 20 far-right Republicans — more than half of whom denied the 2020 election results — are once again gathered on the House floor, this time waging a symbolic fight against Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

In the last three days, the nine-term lawmaker from Bakersfield, California, has lost eleven bids for House speaker as a sect of ultra-conservative Republicans repeatedly stonewall his leadership ambitions, even as he makes increasing concessions in an effort to curry their favor.

The tumult unfolding on the House Floor as the 118th Congress attempts to kick off this week is markedly less violent than the chaos that overtook the Capitol two years ago when a mob of Trump supporters laid siege to the US Capitol in a deadly effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

But several of the political personalities at the heart of that attack are the same ones now holding the speakership hostage.

"It should not go without notice that the last time they attempted to destroy American democracy from outside the Capitol and [two] years later, it appears to be taking place inside the Capitol," Eric K. Ward, senior advisor to the Western States Center and an expert on extremism, told Insider.

The panel probing the insurrection argued in its final report released last month that Trump and other Republican lawmakers essentially aided and abetted the Jan. 6 rioters by propagating lies and conspiracy theories about the election.

Twelve of the 20 Republican holdouts outright denied the 2020 election results and nearly all of them cast some sort of doubt over President Joe Biden's win.

Fourteen of the fifteen incumbents voted to overturn the Electoral College results on January 6, 2021, according to The New York Times, and 19 of them have ties to the House Freedom Caucus, which has long been a thorn in the side of the larger conference and frequently came to Trump's defense while he was in office.

Many of the Republicans now wielding an inordinate amount of power over their party also have alleged January 6, 2021, ties.

Organizers of the rally that preceded the January 6, 2021 riot told Rolling Stone in October 2021 that they participated in conversations with several lawmakers, including then-Rep.-elect Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, or their top staffers. All three lawmakers denied allegations that they were involved in planning the event.

Meanwhile, the FBI seized the phone of Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania in August of last year. The Justice Department has not said why Perry's phone was seized. The staunch Trump ally was under scrutiny by the now-dissolved House Select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack after "multiple witnesses" testified that Perry was involved in a scheme to install Trump loyalist Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general in late 2020.

Perry initially filed a lawsuit against the DOJ requesting the return of all data seized from his cellphone, but lawyers for the lawmaker filed a motion to dismiss the case in October. They did not offer an explanation.

Five of the 20 lawmakers are directly named in the final report and members on the committee alleged in June that Reps. Gaetz, Biggs, and Perry all requested pardons from Trump following the Capitol riot. Gaetz, Biggs, and Perry have all denied having done so.

"We're seeing a faction within these MAGA extremists whose goal is to burn down American democracy however they can do so," Ward said of the far-right Republicans.

Ward argued that the holdouts are using Trumpian tactics to strong-arm their way into power, even as they blatantly ignore Trump's own advice and pleas.

Not only will these rogue lawmakers likely have a final say in who leads the party, but they also stand to set the agenda for their entire conference moving into the next Congress as McCarthy continues to kowtow to their demands.

"For the last 30 years the Republican party has typically capitulated to its smallest grouping of militants in order to maintain power," Ward said.

McCarthy lost his eleventh bid on Thursday evening before the House adjourned until Friday, and while some Republicans hinted that talks within the party were moving forward, there was little indication that the 20 holdouts are likely to budge anytime soon.