Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney said Thursday that then-President Donald Trump said during last year’s Capitol uprising that Vice President Mike Pence “deserved to be hanged” while Trump supporters chanted “hang Mike Pence.”
Cheney, vice-chairman of the House of Representatives’ election committee investigating the January 6, 2021 riots, made the statement during his opening remarks at the committee’s first prime-time hearing – highlighted by a 10-minute video tracking the violence as it unfolds, voiced by increasingly frantic radio communications from Washington and U.S. Capitol police.
“You’ll hear President Trump shout and” really get angry “at advisers who told him he needed to do more,” Cheney said. “Maybe our supporters have the right idea.” Mike Pence’s quote “deserves it.”
Cheney also claims that “for several months, Donald Trump has been monitoring and coordinating a complex seven-part plan to repeal [2020] presidential elections and preventing the transfer of presidential power. In our hearings, you will see evidence for every element of this plan.
“On the morning of January 6, President Donald Trump intended to remain president of the United States, despite the legitimate outcome of the 2020 election and in violation of his constitutional obligation to relinquish power,” Cheney continued.
Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney says President Donald Trump said Vice President Mike Pence “deserves to be hanged” as Trump supporters chant “hang Mike Pence” during the Capitol riot. BRENDAN SMIALOVSKI / AFP via Getty Images
Cheney, one of the two Republicans in the panel, has repeatedly clashed with Trump during his four years in power, especially in foreign policy. Last year, she voted to impeach Trump for allegedly inciting a revolt, and Trump backed her main candidate in Congress, Harriet Hedgeman.
The congresswoman’s introductory statement was more detailed than that read by President Benny Thompson (D-Miss.), Who spoke extensively about the events of January 6, 2021 and his views on them.
“I am from a part of the country where people justify the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching. “I remember this dark story as I hear voices today trying to justify the uprising of January 6, 2021,” Thompson said.
Cheney said Trump had acted in “violation of his constitutional obligation to relinquish power.” AP / J. Scott Applewhite, pool
The first of many videos released during the hearing was about the testimony of Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, in which he recalled telling the 45th president that his allegations of election fraud were “crazy.”
Cheney, meanwhile, presented excerpts from the commission’s interviews with former Trump aide Jason Miller, who described discussions with Trump about losing his election, and with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who admitted he rejected the alleged threat to former White House adviser Pat Chipolon to abandon Trump’s post-election maneuvers as “whining.”
Cheney also claims a tweet from December 19, 2020 from Trump, which reads “Big protest in the District of Columbia on January 6. Be there, you’ll be wild! “Trump revolts .
On the morning in question, Donald Trump tweeted encouraging his supporters to attend “wild” rallies that escalated into a riot. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images
“This tweet initiated a chain of events. The tweet led to planning for what happened on January 6, including by the Proud Boys, who ultimately led the Capitol invasion and violence that day, “she said.
An analysis of a video in the Wall Street Journal found that members of the Proud Boys were involved in early clashes with police that helped collapse the security perimeter around the Capitol while Trump was still speaking near the White House.
Cheney promised that during hearings in public committees “you will hear of members of Trump’s cabinet discussing the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment and replacing the President of the United States” and accused the 45th President of doing nothing. to help relieve the besieged members of Congress that day.
Trump supporters are trying to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington. AP / Julio Cortes
“President Trump not only refused to tell the crowd to leave the Capitol, but did not call on any element of the United States government to instruct the Capitol to be protected,” Cheney said.
“He did not call the defense minister on January 6th. He did not speak to his chief prosecutor. He did not speak to the Interior Ministry. President Trump did not order the deployment of the National Guard that day, and he made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets. But Vice President Pence did each of these things.
Following Cheney’s statement, Thompson presented the video, some of which appeared in the Trump impeachment process in the Senate after the uprising. Other footage was taken by documentary filmmaker Nick Custed, who appeared at the hearing as a witness.
The footage includes congressional officials fleeing the office of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as the mob approaches, a rebel reading Trump’s tweet, ignoring Pence over the raging chaos, and a police officer telling a colleague close by. The Western Front of the Capitol: “We can’t stand it. These are too many people. Look at this.”
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