WASHINGTON The United States came closer to losing its democracy on Jan. 6 than ever before in its 234-year history, but Republican opposition may prevent Americans from ever seeing an independent investigation of the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol that was incited by then-President Donald Trump in his last-ditch attempt to remain in power.

Both House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell want to roll Trumps unprecedented attempt to reverse a presidential election into a wide-ranging look at unrest, including that associated with civil rights protests and violence perpetrated by anarchists.

The scope of it needs to deal with a little bit broader than just January the 6th. Weve also had a number of violent disturbances around the country last year, McConnell, of Kentucky, said last month .

McCarthy, of California, agreed. I think if youre going to have a commission, you should look at the whole broad spectrum. We just went through a whole summer of riots throughout the city.

Other Republicans , though, have a different explanation: that nothing good for Trump and his allies will come from digging into the events of that day and what led to them.

There is real concern among a number of members of my own party about a Jan. 6 commission, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) told NBC News on Wednesday, the same day she was thrown out of GOP leadership for standing up to Trumps continued lies about the election having been stolen from him. I think that that kind of intense, narrow focus threatens people in my party who may have been playing a role they should not have been playing.

David Jolly, a former Republican congressman from Florida who served with McCarthy, said the leaders phone call with Trump on Jan. 6 in which he reportedly pleaded with Trump to call off his mob, only to have Trump tell him that the protesters obviously cared more about the election results than McCarthy did was something the House minority leader does not want to testify about.

Kevin McCarthy being a focus of the Jan. 6 investigation is very bad for Kevin McCarthy, Jolly said. The ability to topple our republic was within reach on Jan. 6. Therere a lot of Republicans with unclean hands.

McConnells office did not respond to HuffPost queries Thursday about Cheneys remarks. Matt Sparks, a House GOP spokesman, said McCarthys views are unchanged. It should include thorough investigation into political violence of the last year, especially the political violence that tragically took the life of Officer Evans on Good Friday, he said, referring to William Evans, a U.S. Capitol Police officer who died when a mentally troubled former college football player rammed a car into him and a second officer on April 2.

The emphasis on that incident, though, actually highlights the marked contrast between all of the episodes Republicans want to talk about and Jan. 6.

Evanss assailant acted on his own. The rioting and looting last summer was committed at the fringes of major protests that followed the murder of a Black man by a police officer in Minneapolis. The ongoing violence in cities including Portland, Oregon, has been committed by anarchists with little discernible purpose.