Liz Cheney was once one of the most powerful Republicans in the country. Then she spoke out against Trump. Last May, her own party came for her, voting to remove her from her leadership position. But has that stopped her from slamming the former president? Absolutely not. The Wyoming representative is one of the few GOP members of the House’s Jan. 6 committee and she’s not above absolutely shredding Trump cronies like Jim Jordan. On Sunday, she did not mince words about some of the things they’ve discovered.
The daughter of Dick Cheney, who has weathered untold abuse from the party her father once helped control, was on ABC’s This Week, where she slammed what Trump did as his violent supporters were running roughshod through the Capitol building: He watched them do it on TV and, for hours, did nothing to stop it.
On ABC, Liz Cheney says Jan 6 committee has first-hand testimony that Trump watched assault on the Capitol on TV & resisted pleas from McCarthy & Ivanka asking he call for a stop to the violence.
Cheney adds that she thinks Trump returning to office could be the end of democracy pic.twitter.com/iz8Ibydb3u
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2022
“Any man who would watch television as police officers were being beaten, as his supporters were invading the Capitol of the United States, is clearly unfit for future office,” Cheney said on, saying he “clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.”
Cheney was just getting started. “He crossed lines no American president has ever crossed before,” Cheney said. “When a president refuses to tell the mob to stop, when he refuses to defend any of the coordinate branches of government, he cannot be trusted.”
She also spoke about some of their findings. “The committee has firsthand testimony now that [Trump] was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television,” Cheney said. “We have firsthand testimony that his daughter Ivanka went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence.”
Cheney also pointed out that he could very well have done what he wound up doing much later, after the damage was done. “He could have told them to stand down. He could have told them to go home—and he failed to do so,” Cheney said. “It’s hard to imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty than that.”
She also suggested that Trump could face jailtime, saying there were “potential criminal statutes at issue here.”
The Jan. 6 committee is far from done investigating that fateful day, with talk of coming for House minority leader Kevin McCarthy next. Those who’ve ignored subpoenas, such as Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows, may be headed for the slammer.
(Via ABC News)