During the Jan. 6 riot, former Vice President Mike Pence was “essentially the president,” taking charge as his former No. 1 reportedly failed to issue orders to deploy troops to the Capitol, according to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY).
As the crowd of protesters breached the Capitol, Pence took charge as the de facto president, “doing absolutely what you would expect anybody in that situation to do,” she said. The Wyoming Republican’s comments build on a timeline constructed by the Jan. 6 committee that details the 187 minutes from when the riot began to the time that President Donald Trump finally released a video telling rioters to leave the Capitol.
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“If you watched our hearings closely, you know that Mike Pence was essentially the president for most of that day,” Cheney said at an event at the American Enterprise Institute on Monday. “White House staff knew it, and so did every other Republican and Democratic leader in Washington.”
The Jan. 6 committee has sought to use its investigation and eight public hearings to tie Trump to the riot and show how the former president refused to act during the attack despite calls from his inner circle — including Pence. During a July hearing, lawmakers presented evidence that Trump spent much of that time watching the violence unfold on television while declining to intervene.
“[Pence] was very animated, and he issued very explicit, very direct unambiguous orders. There was no question about that,” Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified to the committee. “And he was — and I can give you the exact quotes, I guess, from some of our record somewhere, but he was very animated, very direct, very firm.”
Cheney further defended Pence during her remarks on Monday, praising the former vice president and rejecting assertions he exceeded his constitutional duties.
“I think that when you look at the other people who were involved that day and the actions they took, they all were acting in a way that you would expect them to,” Cheney said. “And I don’t believe that at any point the vice president exceeded his constitutional duties and obligations by saying, ‘The Capitol is under attack, and it needs to stop, and we need to get help here.’”
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Cheney’s approval of Pence comes in stark contrast to other comments she made during Monday’s event, as she condemned other elected Republicans who have defended Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 or have backed his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
“No office is worth holding if you enable, through your action or your inaction, the dismantling of our Republic,” she said. “Does defending Donald Trump now mean excusing obstruction of justice? How many of our elected officials today are willing to do that? Bit by bit, excuse by excuse, we’re putting Donald Trump above the law. We are rendering indefensible conduct normal, legal, and appropriate — as though he were a king.”
