House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is claiming the Jan. 6 select committee’s subpoena for documents and testimony from Steve Bannon is “invalid” ahead of the House’s vote to recommend that the former White House strategist be held in contempt of Congress after he declined to comply with the panel’s request.

Bannon — who was a private citizen during the time of the riot on the Capitol — cited “executive privilege” in pushing back on cooperating with the panel, with his attorney Robert Costello stating that he would “comply with the directions of the courts.” 

While the panel was issued subpoena power, McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the courts should determine whether Bannon would be covered by executive privilege. 

“They’re issuing an invalid subpoena,” he said at a press conference Thursday. “Issuing invalid subpoenas weakens our power, not if somebody votes against it. He has the right to go to the court to see if he has executive privilege or not. I don’t know if he does or not but neither does the committee.”

Bannon was subpoenaed by the panel on Sept. 23, along with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former White House communications official Dan Scavino and former Pentagon official Kash Patel.

When pressed on what makes the subpoena invalid, McCarthy argued that the entire panel is invalid due to it passing largely along party lines. 

McCarthy has long been critical of the select committee, arguing it is politically motivated. He escalated his criticisms of the panel after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rebuffed two of his five selections — Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.), both allies of President Donald Trump — to sit on the committee. After the speaker rejected his picks, he opted not to have any of his members serve. 

The nine-person panel — which was created after a vote in June which passed largely along party lines — currently includes two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), both of whom defied McCarthy’s calls not to partake in the committee. 

Members of the committee voted unanimously Tuesday to advance the resolution to recommend the Department of Justice pursue criminal charges. 

Bannon is seen as a critical witness for the panel due to his communications with Trump in the days leading up to Jan. 6.

President Biden admitted during a CNN town hall Thursday night that he has no immediate solution to the problem of spiking gas prices and suggested that Americans would not start seeing relief at the pump until next year.

“My guess is, you’ll start to see gas prices come down as we get by and going into the winter – I mean, excuse me, into next year, 2022,” the president told moderator Anderson Cooper at the Baltimore event.

“I don’t see anything that’s going to happen in the meantime that’s going to significantly reduce gas prices.

“I must tell you, I don’t have a near-term answer,” Biden added before musing on the possibility that he could “go in the [Strategic] Petroleum Reserve and take out and probably reduce the price of gas maybe 18 cents or so per gallon, [but] it’s still gonna be above three bucks.”

According to AAA, the national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline had reached $3.36 Thursday, up four cents from the average on Monday. The organization noted that no state had an average gas price lower than $3 per gallon.

In Gorda, Calif., on the state’s Central Coast, a gallon of unleaded was fetching $7.59, while Fox 5 reported last week that Manhattan motorists were paying nearly $5 per gallon to fill up their tank.

AAA attributed the price spike to high demand, high crude oil prices and a drop in gas stocks –which Biden sought to blame Thursday on OPEC and its oil-producing allies in the Middle East.

“Gas prices relate to a foreign policy initiative that is about something that goes beyond the cost of gas … That’s because of the supply being withheld by OPEC,” he said, “and so there’s a lot of negotiation that is … there’s a lot of Middle Eastern folks that want to talk to me. I’m not sure I’m going to talk to them, but the point is, it’s about gas production.”

Republicans have blamed Biden for spiking energy prices, citing his administration’s pursuit of inflationary spending policies as well as the president’s cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline on his first day in office.

“Gas prices are at the highest levels since 2014 and Americans’ heating costs could increase as much as 54% this winter,” the Republican National Committee’s @RNCResearch account tweeted in response to Biden’s remarks. “Biden attacked American energy, and now Americans are paying the price!”

“The answer ultimately is, ultimately meaning the next three or four years, is investing in renewable energy,” insisted Biden, who also touted the “Big Three” US automakers’ August announcement that electric vehicles will make up between 40 and 50 percent of their sales by 2030.

“So what will happen is, you’re going to see a dramatic drop, a dramatic drop, in what’s gonna happen in terms of gas prices as we go into the next two or three years,” the president promised.

But in the meantime, Biden acknowledged, “it’s gonna be hard. It’s gonna be hard. There’s a possibility to be able to bring it down. It depends on a little bit on Saudi Arabia and a few other things that are in the offing.”

In a largely party-line vote Thursday, the House of Representatives passed the Jan. 6 select committee’s resolution to recommend that former Trump strategist Steve Bannon be held in contempt of Congress over his refusal to comply with its subpoena. 

Bannon —  who was a private citizen at the time of the riot, having been fired from his White House position in August 2017 — has argued through his attorney Robert Costello that he is “not required to respond” to the subpoena,” citing former President Donald Trrump’s claim of executive privilege. 

Its passage comes as the nine-member select committee — which is tasked with investigating the events surrounding the deadly attack on the Capitol when pro-Trump supporters stormed the building in an attempt to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election — unanimously voted to advance the resolution calling for the Department of Justice to pursue criminal charges against Bannon for his refusal to provide requested testimony and documents on Tuesday. 

The full House vote comes days after Trump filed a lawsuit calling for the release of documents to the committee to be blocked under the purview of executive privilege.

Members of the committee have asserted that Bannon is a critical witness to its investigation due to his communication, stating in a report released on Monday that the former Trump adviser “appears to have played a multi-faceted role in the events of January 6th, and the American people are entitled to hear his first-hand testimony regarding his actions.”

The report cites Bannon’s communication with Trump in the days leading up to the attack and “his efforts to plan political and other activity in advance of January 6th,” pointing to his participation in a ‘‘war room’’ organized at the Willard Hotel on Jan. 5. 

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of the two GOP lawmakers on the panel, argued that Bannon’s refusal to comply suggests he holds pertinent information. 

“Today, Madam Speaker, we are here to address one witness: Mr. Steve Bannon. I urge all Americans to watch what Mr. Bannon said on his podcast on Jan. 5 and 6. It is shocking and indefensible. He said, all hell is going to break loose. He said, quote, we are coming in right over the target. This is the point of attack. We have always — this is the point of attack we have always wanted,” she said on the floor ahead of the vote.” 

Critics of the resolution, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) argue that the subpoena is “invalid” and the courts should determine whether executive privilege applies to the former Trump adviser. McCarthy went as far as arguing that the entire panel — which was granted subpoena power — is invalid since the Republican members he selected do not partake in the committee. 

The California Republican opted not to place any GOP lawmakers on the panel after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) rejected two of his selections, Reps. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), both of which are vocal Trump allies. Cheney and Rep. Adam Kizinger (R-Ill.) defied McCarthy’s calls to refrain from participating in the panel, sparking strong backlash from their GOP colleagues. 

Critics have alleged the panel is politically motivated and alleging it is overstepping its authority to investigate a private citizen. 

“Congress is prohibited from conducting criminal investigations, period.But that’s exactly what the select committee is doing, conducting an illicit criminal investigation into American citizens. Steve Bannon was a private citizen before, after, and during Jan. 6. So why is the select committee interested in Steve Bannon? It’s simple. He’s a Democrat Party boogieman,” Banks said on the floor. 

“… Congress can only issue subpoenas that serve a legislative purpose. The question that the committee must answer is why are they seeking information about a permitted political rally? What legislative purpose does that serve? Is the committee considering laws to limit americans’ right to political protest? It’s clear that the select committee doesn’t give a lick about Congress’ subpoena authority.”

Pelosi disputed the claim the panel doesn’t serve a legislative purpose, telling reporters on Thursday that the panel will use the findings from its probe to determine what “legislation is necessary.”

The resolution is slated to be sent to acting US Attorney for DC Channing Phillips, who will then determine whether to pursue criminal charges. 

Bannon was first subpoenaed on Sept. 23, along with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former White House communications official Dan Scavino and former Pentagon official Kash Patel. 

Contempt of Congress penalties include fines up to $100,000 and up to a year in prison. 

— Additional reporting by Samuel Chamberlain

President Biden on Wednesday told a false story — for the fourth time since taking office — about an Amtrak conductor named Angelo Negri who supposedly boasted about his train ridership during his final year as vice president.

Negri retired from Amtrak in 1993 and died in May 2014, CNN reported in June — making it impossible for Negri to have spoken with Biden during his final year as VP, which would have been in 2016 or the first month of 2017.

The president retold the tale, which he called “a true story,” in Scranton, Pa., to underscore his commitment to the passenger rail service, which would gain additional funding in the Senate-passed $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Biden attempted an Italian American accent to mimic Negri saying, “Joey, baby!” as a prelude to arguing that the then-vice president had traveled more miles on Amtrak than on Air Force flights.

“I guess it was seven years into — to my tenure as vice president,” Biden said Wednesday.

“Angelo Negri was from — you remember Ang? Ang came up to me one day when I was — when they just had announced that I had flown 1 million-some — X-number of miles on Air Force aircraft. And Ang comes up, and I’m getting into the car, and he goes, ‘Joey, baby. What do you…’ And I thought the Secret Service was going to shoot him,” Biden said.

“I said, ‘No, no, no, no. He’s good. He’s good.’ It’s a true story.”

Biden continued, “And he said, ‘I just read — big deal. Big deal…’ — whatever it was — ‘…1,200,000 miles Air Force. You know how many miles you did Amtrak?’ And I said, ‘No, Ang. I don’t have any idea, pal.’”

Negri purportedly told Biden, “Boom, boom. You have traveled over 2 million miles, Joe. I don’t want to hear any more about the Air Force.”

Biden previously told the story in September during an Oval Office meeting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in June during an infrastructure speech in Wisconsin and in April at a train station in Philadelphia.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other presidents have repeatedly presented questionable stories. For example, former President Donald Trump routinely spoke about being named “Man of the Year” in Michigan, despite no record of him receiving such an award.

But Biden’s misremembering comes as his critics accuse him of being in mental decline.

The president, who turns 79 next month, earlier this week turned heads by speaking about his involvement in the civil rights movement before running for the Senate in 1972 — despite previously saying he wasn’t involved as an activist.

“I had gotten involved in the civil rights movement,” Biden said at a “teacher of the year” event Monday on the White House lawn.

But in 1987, Biden admitted that his involvement in that movement amounted to working at a primarily black swimming pool.

“During the ’60s I was, in fact, very concerned about the civil rights movement. I was not an activist. I worked at an all-black swimming pool in the east side of Wilmington, Delaware. I was involved. I was involved in what they were thinking, what they were feeling. I was involved, but I was not out marching. I was not down in Selma, I was not anywhere else,” Biden said at the time.

Biden has struggled with more recent accounts, too. Last month, he falsely claimed that he remembered “spending time at” and “going to” the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh after the October 2018 mass murder of 11 people. After the synagogue said he did not visit, the White House said he misspoke and was referring to a 2019 phone call with the congregation’s rabbi.