Washington, DC – Yesterday, Wyoming Congresswoman and Vice Chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol Liz Cheney (R-WY) took part in three major television interviews and joined two prominent podcasts to discuss the first anniversary of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and the work being done by the January 6th Select Committee.
See below for excerpts from Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier,” The New York Times’ “The Daily” Podcast, NBC’s “TODAY Show,” the “Honestly with Bari Weiss” Podcast, and CNN’s “Live from the Capitol: January 6th, One Year Later”:
Rep. Liz Cheney Joins Fox News’ “Special Report With Bret Baier” | January 6, 2022
BRET BAIER: What did you make of the vice president and the president’s speeches today in Statuary Hall?
REP. LIZ CHENEY: Well, I thought that there were a number of things that they said that I agreed with. I think when you look at what happened, and at the attack that happened on January 6th, I think it’s different from what happened on 9/11, different from Pearl Harbor. Obviously 3,000 Americans died in each of those events, each of those attacks, but this was a mob that was summoned by and provoked by the President of the United States in an effort to stop the counting of electoral votes, which is a constitutional process. And so, I do think the attacks are very different. I think there is a grave threat, certainly, to our system, to our constitutional institutions. And I think we have to set partisanship aside and party politics aside to get to the bottom of what happened and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
BAIER: Well, what do you say to Republicans who listen to that, and obviously you’ve addressed the 9/11 comparison, the Pearl Harbor comparison, but they also listened to a pitch for voting rights bills. H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 are both bills you voted against.
REP. CHENEY: That’s right.
BAIER: Yet, Democrats are using and linking those to make a sales pitch essentially for passing those pieces of legislation based on the work of your Committee and this day.
REP. CHENEY: Well, I have strong policy disagreements with both H.R. 1 and H.R. 4. As you noted, I voted against those. I think the Committee has important legislative work to do though. We need to look at things like, are there reforms necessary to the Electoral Count Act? We need to look at things like, are there enhanced penalties that are necessary for a president who fails to come to the aid of Congress, who fails to come to the aid of any co-equal branch of government? We need to look at things like the dereliction of duty. When President Trump — you know, we know he sat in the dining room next to the Oval Office while the attack was underway. He could have at any moment taken a few steps down the hall to the briefing room, gone on live television, and urged his supporters to stop and go home. And he didn’t do that. So, there are real legislative questions the Committee needs to answer and needs to think about, but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to have complete agreement or that I certainly agree with policy matters that I have not agreed with in the past.
BAIER: When you hear Trump supporters point to that speech that he made on the Mall saying supporters should, “peacefully and patriotically march to the Capitol,” what do you say?
REP. CHENEY: Look, I think you have to look at the speech, you have to look at the extent to which he was urging people to, “fight like hell.” You have to look at the extent to which he had been for months, weeks before that, telling people, “Come to Washington, it will be wild.” I also think that you have to look at what he has said since. He continues to suggest that the violence on January 6th was justified. When he says, “November 3rd was the insurrection and January 6th was a protest,” what he is doing is continuing to undermine our electoral process. You know, he has gone to war with the rule of law, and I think that’s also really important for people to understand. We had over 60 state and federal courts that heard his claims — many of them were Trump judges. They heard the evidence in many of those cases, and they rejected them. The President of the United States has got a fundamental constitutional responsibility to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed, and that is what Donald Trump failed to do.
BAIER: What’s the ultimate goal of the January 6th Committee?
REP. CHENEY: We have several goals. One is obviously the legislative purpose that I have mentioned, the extent to which there may be legislation or enhanced penalties, for example, that we need to look at to make sure this never happens again. We also need to ensure the American people know the truth, that the American people understand minute-by-minute. You know, we know, for example, that President Trump attempted to pressure the people in his Justice Department. He said he was going to name Jeffrey Clark to be Attorney General, that he intended to do that. Jeffrey Clark has now told the Committee he wants to take the Fifth, and the entire leadership of his Justice Department threatened to resign. We know his White House Counsel also threatened to resign. We know President Trump pressured local government officials to try to overturn the election. All of those things are a fundamental threat to our democracy and things that have got to be investigated. The American people need to have the truth about what happened.
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BAIER: What do you say to somebody sitting at home who may say, “Listen, I think that day was horrible, what happened that day was horrible. But I’m worried about getting my kids to school. I’m worried about what’s happening with COVID. I’m worried about the next economic blip that I may face,” and they look at the focus on 1/6 and say, “Why is this so important that I have to — that everything else gets pushed off to the side?” What do you say to them?
REP. CHENEY: That I absolutely share those concerns. You know, I voted with President Trump 93% of the time – more than most Republican Members of the House of Representatives. I’m a conservative Republican. I believe that the policies of the Biden Administration are bad for this country, but I also know that this country must go forward on a basis of truth. We have got to be faithful to the Constitution and the rule of law. And that if we aren’t faithful to those things and if we don’t tell the truth about history, then the institutions themselves begin to unravel. So, if we want to be in a position where we can advocate conservative policies again, we’ve got to tell the truth about January 6th, and we have to make sure that it never happens again.
BAIER: So, why did the Wyoming Republican Party pass this resolution to no longer recognize you as a Republican and put out this long lengthy statement about how you are closer to Nancy Pelosi, and they have a problem with that. Why?
REP. CHENEY: Well, I would note the vote was 31-29. So, it was a close-run thing. And certainly, there are people in the state party apparatus of my home state who are quite radical. And some of those same people, include people who were here on January 6th, include a party chair who has toyed with the idea of secession. So, there is a very radical element of the Republican Party in the same way that there is a radical element of the Democratic Party. But we have to be in a position where we are able to come together, where we are able to focus on substance, on policy, and I look forward very much to putting my record of delivering for the people of Wyoming and fidelity to the Constitution up for the people of Wyoming to make a decision about this election cycle.
Rep. Liz Cheney Joins The New York Times’ “The Daily” Podcast | January 6, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/06/podcasts/the-daily/cheney-trump-gop-jan-6.html
REP. LIZ CHENEY: My voting record in terms of, you know, Donald Trump’s policies — I voted with him like 93% of the time.
MICHAEL BARBARO: Right.
REP. CHENEY: But to me, when you get to the point of what happened after the election, you know, if the party — well, if elected officials aren’t going to take seriously what it really means to be in these offices, then we are in a bad place. And I think that right now, the Republican Party is allowing the toxin of Donald Trump and what he did and his lies, to continue to infect the party and not standing up against it. And I don’t minimize the difficulty and the challenges that come with standing up and speaking out, but if you don’t want to do that, then you shouldn’t be in these jobs. Because, you know, our fundamental structure and fundamental system depends upon people of good faith doing what they believe is right. And, you know, if you’re just going to get elected to office to say you’re in the office, but when the chips are down and when the test comes and you’re unwilling to do what you know is right, that really does, then, create the potential that the system can unravel. And I think everybody’s got to come to grips with the role that they play in preventing that from happening.
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REP. CHENEY: I certainly think it would have been preferable, for example, if we’d had a bipartisan commission. I voted for that in the House. We had 35 Republicans who voted for, you know, a commission that looked like the 9/11 Commission that was not made up of current House members, and was equal numbers, Republicans and Democrats. But you know, there, again, Leader McCarthy, you know, basically told the Republican Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Committee, John Katko — who was one of the 10 who voted to impeach — told Katko to negotiate what a commission should look like with the Democrats. The Republicans got everything that we asked for. And then McCarthy pulled his support for the commission.
BARBARO: Right.
REP. CHENEY: And then it went over to the Senate, and McConnell wouldn’t support it and lobbied against in the Senate. So, it failed in the Senate.
BARBARO: Right.
REP. CHENEY: So, we ended up in a situation where you cannot let January 6th go uninvestigated. And the bipartisan commission has failed. So, the only thing that’s left is this Select Committee. And so, by the time we got to the Select Committee, and I voted for the resolution that created it on the floor — when Speaker Pelosi called and asked me to be on it, I didn’t hesitate. I think there’s no way that you can justify not investigating the worst attack on our Capitol since the War of 1812. And so, I was honored to be asked, and I’m honored to be part of the Committee.
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REP. CHENEY: I believe fundamentally that the vast majority of Americans, Republicans and Democrats, want to live in a country that continues to be characterized by the freedoms that we enjoy, and that they are fundamentally faithful to the Constitution. And I think of it less as, you know, what the party has to do, and more about what we all have to do as Americans together, because it’s a dangerous moment, the stakes are really high. If Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee, if Donald Trump is elected President again, I think that the Republic is at risk. And the notion that someone who has shown as little commitment to the Constitution as he did, would be entrusted with its preservation once again, is something that, you know, I think we have to avoid at all costs. And that means demanding of your elected officials that they act with faith to the Constitution. And that means every individual American themselves doing what you know is right and making sure you’re supporting people who are going to do the right thing, even when it’s tough, even when it’s difficult.
BARBARO: Okay, but how do you do it? I mean, how do you see your way out of a cycle in which it now appears the voters control the party, and the voters believe an election was stolen? I think a lot of people see it as very difficult to find a way out of that dynamic.
REP. CHENEY: Well, I refuse to believe — and won’t sit by and watch our system be unraveled. And I think that the effort to make sure that we, as I said, elect people who are faithful to the Constitution, people who will defend the system, stand up against the lie, all of those things matter hugely.
BARBARO: You believe that continuing to speak the truth and stand up for what you believe somehow that will win out? And hopefully, you think that will happen before the democracy collapses.
REP. CHENEY: I know that it is my responsibility and my duty and my obligation, and I’m going to continue doing it because I know it’s what’s right. And I believe fundamentally in the, you know, the goodness of the vast majority of the American people and in the greatness of this country. And I’m not going to cede our party and I’m not going to cede the Republic to Donald Trump or those forces who, you know, have shown themselves unfit and have shown themselves unwilling to carry out their duties to the Constitution.
Rep. Liz Cheney Joins NBC’s “TODAY Show” | January 6, 2022
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: I’ve never known you to be one for big emotions, but as you sit here today, one year later, and consider, how close did we come in this country — How close did we come to the violent overthrow of a valid election?
REP. LIZ CHENEY: We came very close. Our institutions held, but they only held because of the people who were willing to stand up against the pressure from former President Trump, people at his own Department of Justice who stood up to him, elected officials at the state level who stood up to him, and the law enforcement officers here at the Capitol. You just had Harry Dunn on. People like Harry, Mike Fanone, 140 law enforcement officers who fought at the tunnel to prevent thousands more from breaching the Capitol that day. We came very close, and we need to recognize how important it is that the system depends upon individuals and that we make sure that it never happens again.
GUTHRIE: Your Co-Chair Bennie Thompson has said, “We came critically close to the end of democracy as we know it.” The president expected to address the nation and portray our democracy as in a very fragile moment right now, not a year ago, right now. Do you agree?
REP. CHENEY: I do. The threat continues. Former President Trump continues to make the same claims that he knows caused violence on January 6th, and it’s very important, if you look at what’s happening today in my party, in the Republican Party. Rather than reject what happened on the 6th, reject the lies about the election and make clear that a president who engaged in those activities can never be president again, unfortunately, too many in my own party are embracing that former president, are looking the other way, are minimizing the danger. That’s how democracies die, and we simply cannot let that happen.
GUTHRIE:The Committee in Congress that is investigating this matter has already interviewed 300-plus witnesses, looked at 35,000 pages of documents. Big picture first, for those who think maybe this was a protest that got emotional, out of control, how high does it go? Have you been surprised or alarmed by anything you have unearthed so far in the Committee?
REP. CHENEY:You know, we have unearthed new things in every single aspect of our investigation. I’m confident that we’ll continue to do so. We’ve had tremendous cooperation from many, many people, including people in the president’s inner circle, people who were in the West Wing that day, people who have come forward to us with information about what they saw and what they know, and I’m confident that cooperation will continue. The Committee is absolutely determined to ensure that we understand the entire plot, the entire plan to overthrow the election to really overturn the rule of law. You know, we had over 60 courts in this country that ruled against the claims the former president was making, and yet he rejected those rulings and attempted to overturn the will of the people. That simply cannot happen in the United States.
GUTHRIE:I know the Committee is zeroing in on a key time frame, a chunk of about three hours in the afternoon of January 6th. At 1:10 or so the president tells his crowd, his protestors, at a speech to march on the Capitol, and it’s not until 187 minutes later that he releases a video statement telling them to go home. What have you learned about those 187 minutes? How would you characterize the president’s conduct, or lack thereof, in those moments?
REP. CHENEY:We know, Savannah, that the president was watching television in his private dining room off the Oval Office. We know from firsthand testimony that he was watching the violent assault on the Capitol. We also know that he could have at any moment walked the very few steps to the White House briefing room, he could have gone on the air and told the people who were his supporters assaulting the Capitol to go home. He did not do that, and we are very focused on the minute-by-minute activities at the White House, what he was doing. And again, as I said, we now have firsthand testimony about the extent to which he was watching television and was refusing to ask people to stop, ask them to go home.
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GUTHRIE:You know, even as you investigate January 6th, the current threat is still looming large. As mentioned, in 16 states there are pending laws that would change election rules to give more power to politicians and the state legislatures rather than election officials and governors. There are at least 18 Trump loyalists, election deniers who are running for secretary of state. 71% of Republicans believe the election was stolen. About a third think that political violence is justified in some circumstances. Is the former president, President Trump, in a better position today legally, politically, rhetorically, than he was a year ago, to subvert a U.S. election?
REP. CHENEY:We will not allow him to subvert a U.S. election. He is certainly continuing his efforts in that regard. I think it’s incumbent upon every one of us who is elected, it is incumbent of every American out there to ensure when they’re casting their vote, when they’re deciding whom they’re going to support, that they are aware that there are candidates that this former president is attempting to support who, for example, would not have certified the election results last time around. That’s going to be a critical part of our upcoming elections, and we all have a duty to ensure that he cannot subvert this democracy.
GUTHRIE:Finally, Congresswoman, a year ago it was all there for us to see, this violent mob attacking police officers, attacking our Capitol live on television, and it was unthinkable that anyone could deny it. And yet, that is exactly what has happened. Take a look.
SEAN HANNITY: The vast majority in Washington, D.C., today were peaceful.
SEN. RON JOHNSON: By and large, it was peaceful protests.
LAURA INGRAHAM:This is one of the big lies that this was a coordinated insurrection.
REP. ANDREW CLYDE: If you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.
GUTHRIE: If people are willing to believe voices like that and spin like that instead of their own eyes, what hope is there for your Committee or for any investigation here?
REP. CHENEY: I have tremendous hope, Savannah. There are millions of Americans across this country who understand their responsibility with respect to defending the institutions, to defending the Constitution, and all of those people that you just played, all of my colleagues, anyone who attempts to minimize what happens, anyone who denies the truth of what happened, they ought to be ashamed of themselves, and history is watching, and history will judge them. But the American people have the ability to ensure that we protect our Constitution and we protect our institutions with their votes, with their voices, and we certainly are not going to be part, on our Committee, of allowing those institutions to be unraveled.
GUTHRIE:Congresswoman Liz Cheney, thank you very much for your time this morning.
Rep. Liz Cheney Joins The “Honestly with Bari Weiss” Podcast | January 6, 2022
REP. LIZ CHENEY: I think it really is critical for all of us as Americans to recognize that there comes a moment when party has to take a backseat in terms of, you know, our responsibility. And as you point out, I am a conservative Republican. I believe in those policies for this country, but no president can cross the line Donald Trump did, and it doesn’t matter what party that president belongs to. And I guess those of us in the Republican Party have a particular duty and responsibility when the president does what he did, in terms of mobilizing the mob, in terms of refusing to take immediate action to tell people to go home. Those are the kinds of things that are clear derelictions of duty, and clearly impeachable offenses. So, from my perspective, it was very much based upon what happened that day and the role that he played. And as I said, you know, at the time, I knew we did not know everything, but I knew what we knew at that moment was enough. It was very clearly impeachable activity.
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BARI WEISS: You say that what happened that day and the line being crossed was so obvious and so clear. And I think that too, but why are you one of the only ones in your party, or maybe one of the only people in such a position of authority who sees this? Why is this unique?
REP. CHENEY: Yeah, I mean, I suppose I don’t know the answer to that. I think that we clearly have a situation where elected officials have to make a decision about whether we are bystanders or leaders. And in too many cases, unfortunately, in my own party, our elected leaders have decided they’ll be bystanders at best. We have too many people who are sort of saying, “Well, if we ignore the former president, he’ll go away. If we ignore what happened on the 6th, then we can just all move past it.” The problem is he continues to say the things that he knows caused violence that day. He continues to make these assertions that somehow the violence was justified, which is what he’s saying, when he says, “November 3rd was the insurrection and January 6th was simply a protest.” And when leaders of my party either embrace him, or refuse to confront the truth of what happened, then the danger increases. The danger that people will think that it’s an acceptable tool in our political discourse, you know, that violence is somehow an acceptable tool, or, frankly, that the election was stolen. I mean, that big lie is at the heart of so much of this. And I think, you know, that’s another place where voters deserve to know the truth, and people who are elected need to remember that, you know, our role is not to sort of be standing on the sidelines watching as things go down such a dangerous path, our role as try is to try to stop it and to try to make sure people understand the truth of what happened. And the truth of what we know he’s capable of, what we know who he will do again if he is in a position to do so.
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REP. CHENEY: What we’ve learned is how fragile our institutions are if you have a president who does not operate in good faith to protect them. And, you know, a president who won’t protect the other branches of government, who would not tell his supporters to go home while they were attacking the Capitol, who tweeted out that his vice president didn’t lack the courage to do what was necessary while the mob was hunting for the vice president, who was in the Capitol with his family. I mean, those are the things that I think there’s no question that the American people deserve to understand what happened and deserve to understand who was responsible and deserve to know minute-by-minute what was going on in the West Wing that day, what was going on in the Capitol that day, why we got to a point in this nation where, you know, the President of the United States, while the violent assault was happening and he wasn’t telling people to leave to go home, you know, he made at least one phone call to a Senator telling them to please try to delay some more. So, it’s a lesson for us all in how important the good faith of elected officials is. And there’s an inscription that’s very famous, it’s over the fireplace in the dining room in the White House. And it’s a letter John Adams wrote to Abigail, and the inscription is — part of it says, “May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof.” And that, really, I think we’ve seen how important that is, that, you know, you cannot entrust the security of the Republic to someone who is going to put his own interests ahead of that.
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REP. CHENEY: My view is that the Republican Party is a party that’s based on conservative principles. And I think those principles are the right ones for the country. I think that we are in a terrible spot from a policy perspective when, you know, you’ve got Joe Biden in the White House. I think his national security policy is not good for the country. I think his economic policy is leading to inflation and a massive expansion of the size of the federal government. I think that his energy and environmental policies are misguided and really bad for the people of Wyoming. And you’ve got people on the far left of the Democratic Party, who are self-avowed socialists, and who espouse a set of policies and principles we know don’t work and have been tried in countries around the world and are really, really bad for the country. And so, the country’s got to have a Republican Party that voters will look to as a party that is espousing substance and policy and ideas, a party that’s got a foundation of truth. I think it’s a party that needs to stand for strong national defense, low taxes, and limited government. I think that those are the policies we have to be able to espouse for the nation. As long as our party is instead acting more like a cult of personality around Donald Trump, we know we aren’t in a position that we’ve got to be in to lead the country. And so, I think, you know, I think we clearly have got to get back to that substance. And, I think that goes to your previous question, too, which is, you know, the country faces really big challenges right now, very serious ones. And, you know, setting aside the issues we’re dealing with with respect to January 6th, the national security threat from China, and what we’re seeing from Russia, and what we’re watching happen around the world in terms of nuclear proliferation and cyber attacks. You know, what we’re seeing happen domestically, all of those issues, from an economic perspective, for example, require serious solutions. And we need serious people, Democrats and Republicans, who will be able to say, “Look, let’s debate the issues. Let’s have really vigorous policy debates. You know, I’m going to make sure I’m as prepared as possible to defend what I believe and what I’m going to fight for, and people on the other side should do the same. And let’s have these debates on policy and come to conclusion and solutions.” Let’s incentivize those people and reject the voices on the fringe in both parties. And look, I think right now in the Republican Party, especially in the House in the Republican Conference, you know, Leader McCarthy is embracing and enabling and supporting Members who have espoused anti-Semitic views, Members who’ve espoused white supremacist views. And those are views that shouldn’t have any place in our discourse. When we see anti-Semitism, you know, from people like Ilhan Omar, it has to be rejected immediately. And when we see things like white supremacy from people like Paul Gosar, that’s got to be rejected immediately, too. We have to be able to say, no matter how big our tent is as a party, those views are outside of it. And we need to get back to substance. And I think that’s a large part of the challenge, but also where the solution lies here.
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WEISS: So, Representative Cheney, last question here. And it’s a question about trust. And it’s a question I’ve been thinking about so much over the past few years, which is, how do you rebuild trust once trust is demolished? And I’m thinking here, not just of the election, but also of our public health institutions, also our media, and just so many things that have been degraded and trashed so thoroughly over the past few years. And that has to do with Trump and Trumpism, but it has to do with a lot of other phenomenon as well. So, how do you think about your role in rebuilding trust as a lawmaker? And is there a way to put back together what has so clearly been shattered in pieces?
REP. CHENEY: Yeah, I think that’s a really, really important question. And I think that it comes in different pieces. Some of it is certainly political, dome of it is cultural, as you’ve described, but I think some of it goes back to incentivizing seriousness. And when I talk to young people all over the country, and, you know, all across Wyoming, I mean, that has been something surprising to me about the last year and really hopeful for me about the last year, the number of young people who will come up to me and say things like, “You know, look, I’m not a conservative, I don’t share a lot of your policy views, but I want to stand with you and fight for the Constitution and fight for the country. And, you know, the democracy.” And I do believe that some of these solutions are going to depend upon young people. Some of the solutions involve things like, what are we doing about social media? What are we doing about, you know, social media companies that use algorithms that drive people into more and more extreme places? And how are we handling, you know, sort of the world of cyberspace and cyber security? And I think there’s some of that as a generational issue that is going to fall to people in your generation and, you know, people in my kids’ generation to come to solutions. But I also – I think you certainly have in the Republican Party a number of people who’ve been elected to the House who look at how Trump operated, and they think that’s the recipe for success. And it is vitriolic. And it is – it’s toxic, and it’s not substantive. And we need serious people engaged in the Republic and engaged in the functioning of the Republic. And I think that’s about trust.
Rep. Liz Cheney Joins CNN’s “Live from the Capitol: January 6th, One Year Later” | January 6, 2022
JAKE TAPPER: Joining us now to discuss, the leaders of the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol: Chairman Bennie Thompson, he’s a Democrat, and Vice Chair Liz Cheney she is, of course, a Republican. And Vice Chair Cheney, I want to start with you because there was a very memorable moment, or at least an image I saw. Your father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, joined you here at the Capitol. You were the only Republicans I saw in that chamber during the moment of silence. Tell me about the importance of him being there with you. Obviously, as former vice president, he was president of the Senate at one point, but, obviously, there was more than that.
REP. LIZ CHENEY: Well, he has such tremendous love for the institution of the House. And, obviously, it’s something that we’ve shared. And he’s also been so troubled watching what’s unfolded, certainly watching the attack last year. And he really wanted to be here today, wanted to be here to pay his respects. He wanted to be here to commemorate the grave nature of what happened and really to help to remind people of the ongoing threat.
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TAPPER: And yet, you were the only House Republican in the chamber this morning during the moment of silence. I know Congressman Kinzinger would have been there, but he’s on baby standby in the Chicago-area. He says he would have been there. This has not been easy for you as a Republican, a very conservative Republican — more conservative than all the House Republican leaders, according to voting records. What was the moment, if there was one, when you said, “I just have to do what’s right, and I don’t care about the politics”?
REP. CHENEY: Well, I think it really began watching President Trump in the aftermath of the election last year — in 2020, and the extent to which after he had exhausted all of his legal challenges, he ignored the rulings in the courts and continued beyond December 14th. And of course, because of the work that we are doing on the Committee now, we know the extent to which he was working to pressure the Justice Department, to pressure state officials. And then, of course, January 6th itself was a line you just can’t cross. And so, leading on from that, I think there’s never been a situation where you have had a president engaged in a more serious violation of his oath of office, of his duty to the Constitution. And to me, that’s just very clear that the security of the Republic depends upon — as the Chairman said, we have to get this right and we have to put this above politics.
TAPPER: But as you note, so many of your colleagues were part of the problem, not a majority of your colleagues necessarily — Well, depending on how you look at the votes or signing on to the amicus brief from Texas. But on January 6th, when Congressman Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, who may well go on to become the next chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, maybe even speaker someday, he tried to help you to safety. Not that you needed it, but you smacked his hand away and you said, “Get away from me. You effing did this.” Except you didn’t say ‘f.’ Some of your fellow Republicans are out there, probably right now on a certain other channel, saying this was “no big deal, we’re making too big a deal out of this.” Ted Cruz said that this special tonight was, “just political theater.” What do you say to them?
REP. CHENEY: I say that’s how democracies die. That if you have members of political parties who ignore an attack, and we’ve never before been in a situation where the president himself provoked a violent assault on this Capitol building. And when you sit here in Statuary Hall tonight and you realize the history of this place and you realize how sacred this place is, any American who would enable or look the other way or dismiss what happened or refuse to do their duty to get to the bottom of it, I think is failing to live up to their oath of office and to their duties as a citizen of this great nation.
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TAPPER: And Vice Chairman Cheney, you talked about President Trump’s culpability. We heard from Stephanie Grisham, who was the White House Communications Director, and she testified before your Committee, or had a conversation with people on your Committee, talking about — she wasn’t there at the time — but she had close friends at the White House and President Trump, then President Trump was just sitting in the dining room off the Oval Office and watching what was going on — and “gleeful” was the word used — and rewinding and watching more, watching more. You have said that Donald Trump committed a “supreme dereliction of duty.” Now, dereliction of duty is a crime. I don’t know if you mean it that way or if you mean it more conceptually. How do you mean it when you say Donald Trump is guilty of dereliction of duty?
REP. CHENEY: Well, I think that as the first course, it is absolutely clear. We know from firsthand testimony that he watched television while the attack was underway, he watched the attack happen on television. We know that he did not walk the very few steps to the White House briefing room, get on camera immediately, and tell the people to stop and go home —
TAPPER: As people were begging him to do.
REP. CHENEY: Exactly.
TAPPER: Including Ivanka Trump.
REP. CHENEY: Right. So, you know, the President of the United States is responsible for ensuring that the laws are faithfully executed. He is responsible for the security of the branches. So, for a president to, through either his action or his in action, for example, attempt to impede or obstruct the counting of electoral votes, which is an official proceeding of Congress — The Committee is looking at that, looking at whether what he did constitutes that kind of a crime. But certainly, it’s dereliction of duty. I mean, imagine, Jake, if President Eisenhower had summoned a mob to Washington and told them to march on the Supreme Court when they were hearing arguments in Brown v. Board of Education, and then imagine if he sat and watched them invade the Supreme Court and didn’t do anything to stop it. We couldn’t imagine that an honorable man like Dwight Eisenhower would do something like that. Yet that is almost exactly what Donald Trump did. And I think it is important for the American people to understand how serious that is and for us to get to the bottom of it.
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TAPPER: Congresswoman Cheney, you just mentioned Dwight Eisenhower, who, in my opinion, is one of the greatest presidents we’ve ever had. This is not Eisenhower’s Republican Party anymore. This isn’t Liz Cheney’s Republican Party anymore. What happened?
REP. CHENEY: Well, we’re certainly in a very dangerous place as a party. I think that right now we have a cult of personality. We have too many people in the party who’ve decided to embrace the former president. And look, you know, the Chairman and I are on very different ends of the political spectrum, and there are many things on which we don’t agree. But we both agree that you have to have healthy political parties in this country so we can engage in that debate on those issues. And right now, my party is not embracing truth, is not embracing substance and seriousness. And I think both of our parties need to be focused on electing serious people to office. People like Dwight Eisenhower, people who take their oath seriously and their obligation seriously and will engage in a way that reflects, that’s worthy of this nation.
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TAPPER: You have said that another Donald Trump presidency could be the end of our democracy. I don’t need to tell you that he’s the front runner for the presidential nomination for your party for 2024 if he runs. What would it say about the Republican Party? What would it say about the United States if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for president again in 2024?
REP. CHENEY: Look, what we saw him do after the election, what we saw him do on the 6th are absolutely disqualifying. And when you think about the trust that we put, as Americans, into the hands of our president and you think about the inscription that’s over the fireplace in the dining room in the White House, which is a John Adams letter to Abigail Adams, and he said, “May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof.” And I think that is really important when you have somebody who has demonstrated his lack of fidelity to the Constitution, someone who’s at war with the rule of law, you cannot entrust that person with the power of the presidency ever again. And I think it’s critically important for the Republic that he not be anywhere close to the Oval Office ever again.
Original source can be found here.
