Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chairs the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, called his role in the investigation "ironic."

"A Black man from one of the most racist states, as it relates to voting rights for people of color, is now having to defend democracy in the greatest democracy known to man — it’s kind of ironic," Thompson said in an interview with theGrio published on the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack.

"I understand the challenge. It’s big. We have a lot to do to make it happen … but I accept the challenge," he added.

The Jan. 6 committee chairman is leading the effort to seek justice against those who had a role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

"I have to help defend this democracy against some of those same people who wanted to deny me and my parents the right to vote because that same mindset is what allowed people to believe that they could break into the United States Capitol and stop the orderly certification of the election," he told theGrio.

Thompson's committee has come under criticism by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who pulled his GOP picks from the House select committee to protest Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) rejection of two of his picks.

The panel does include GOP Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), who were invited by Democrats.

"Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts," McCarthy said in a statement at the time.