Republican representative Alex Mooney said it was “insulting” to describe the Capitol insurrection on 6 January 2021 as a “domestic terrorist attack” and labelled it a “protest”.

“I think that’s insulting, it was a protest,” the lawmaker from West Virginia said in an interview with MetroNews’ “Talkline” on Thursday.

Mr Mooney was asked by the host why he did not support a bill in May last year to form an independent commission to investigate the riots.

The bill, which was to set up a “National Commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol complex, and for other purposes”, was passed through the House of Representatives in May 2021 but blocked in the Senate.

The text of the bill referred to the riot as a “domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol”.

House Democrats went on to establish a select committee to investigate the attack, almost six months after the riots left many injured and four dead.

“It was a protest, that’s what it was. A few people went in and the law should be implemented for those who broke it,” Mr Mooney said. “I do not think it was a domestic terrorist attack.”

The remarks were made by Mr Mooney during a joint interview he gave along with representative David McKinley, one of the 35 Republicans who voted to investigate the attack.

The two Republicans are set to face off each other on the 10 May primary for a new House district in the mountain state.

Mr McKinley said all those who voted in favour of the bill wanted a probe into the events of 6 January, but he pushed back against calling all the rioters terrorists.

“Not all the people there, they were not domestic terrorists. I don’t care what [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] wanted to put in that description,” he added.

Donald Trump, who has praised Mr Mooney, labeled Mr McKinley a RINO, or “Republican in name only”, for voting in favour of investigation and for last year’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, from which West Virginia will receive billions of dollars for several projects related to broadband expansion and road improvements.

The state legislature last year approved a congressional map to have Mr Mooney, a Charles Town resident, and Mr McKinley, a Wheeling native, in the same district.

West Virginia’s House delegation lost one of its three lawmakers following a 2020 census, causing the two representatives to fight for a seat that includes areas from both their current districts.