“I don’t understand why Kevin didn’t put anyone on the committee,” Trump ​has recently ​griped to those around him, according to a GOP source with direct knowledge of the comments — a reference to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s decision to boycott the select committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two ​Republican members he originally chose to sit on the panel…

The thinking among some of Trump’s advisers — and even among a handful of far-right Republicans on Capitol Hill — is that it was a mistake to not have any GOP lawmakers inside the room pushing back in real time ​or providing insight to the former President and rest of the GOP conference as to what investigators planned to highlight in public hearings. Had Republicans been on the committee, they could have asked tough questions of witnesses, made procedural motions to disrupt the flow of the hearings, and would have had some advance knowledge of the subpoenas, taped depositions​ and other evidence collected by the panel.

CNN previously reported that Trump was caught off guard by seeing his daughter, Ivanka Trump,​ and his son-in-law Jared Kushner appear in a video clip during the first televised hearing, even though he knew ​they had both spoken with the committee. ​The former President complained to aides at the time that his daughter’s testimony was taken out of context and deliberately included to embarrass him, according to a person close to Trump.

Some Republicans have also questioned whether a bipartisan commission to investigate January 6 would have been a better outcome for Trump and the GOP.