Outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) took aim at former President Donald Trump during what’s expected to be the final televised hearing of the committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“The vast weight of evidence presented so far has shown us the central cause of January 6 was one man: Donald Trump,” Cheney, the committee’s vice chairwoman, said during her opening statement. “None of this would have happened without him. He was personally and substantially involved in all of this.”
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Cheney argued Trump’s involvement in whipping up and then abetting an angry mob two weeks before President Joe Biden’s inauguration should serve as a lesson about the weaknesses in American democracy.
Her comments came as the committee looked to wrap up its nearly yearlong investigation before the next Congress begins in January.
“Why would Americans assume that our Constitution and our institutions and our republic are invulnerable to another attack?” the Wyoming Republican said. “Any future president inclined to attempt what Donald Trump did in 2020 has now learned not to install people who would stand in the way.”
The Jan. 6 committee has provided Cheney with her largest platform yet from which to attack Trump, who became her nemesis after he refused to concede a loss in the 2020 election.
Previously a member of House Republican leadership, Cheney’s expulsion from the center of conservative politics was swift and aggressive after she began attacking the former president.
House Republicans voted to keep Cheney in the No. 3 position in the House last February despite her vote to impeach Trump.
However, by May of last year, Cheney’s persistence in criticizing Trump, even as most GOP members attempted to move on from the drama of the election and unify around opposition to Biden, became too great a distraction for the rest of Republican leadership.
She was removed from her post by her peers, a move that Trump cheered from the sidelines.
Trump and his allies heavily pushed a primary challenger to Cheney this year in an effort that culminated in Cheney’s ouster from Congress. Republican Harriet Hageman defeated Cheney overwhelmingly in the August primary.
Cheney was not always a Trump antagonist, although she is closing out her congressional career by vowing to fight his potential return to Washington.
In 2016, Cheney backed Trump and was once considered a rising star in the party.
The Wyoming Republican closed out her final moments behind the committee bench by claiming investigators had compiled enough evidence to make several criminal referrals to the Justice Department.
She then backed the committee’s move at the end of its hearing Thursday to subpoena Trump for documents and testimony.
“We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion,” Cheney said.
After Cheney asked for a recorded vote, rather than a voice vote in which the committee would have advanced the subpoena unanimously, all nine members of the committee voted to push for Trump’s compliance.
It is unclear what tools the committee may have to force Trump’s cooperation with its investigation.
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However, one defiant witness, Steve Bannon, faced an indictment after he ignored a congressional subpoena from the panel earlier in the investigation. He was later found guilty and is due to be sentenced next week.
