Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney defended her role on the January 6 committee that cost her another term in Congress during a commencement address at her alma mater, Colorado College in Colorado Springs. She delivered her address on Sunday. Cheney served as the vice chair of the committee before its dissolution at the start of the current Congress.
She warned that former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the outcome of the 2020 election was a threat to democracy.
“After the 2020 election and the attack of January 6th, my fellow Republicans wanted me to lie. They wanted me to say the 2020 election was stolen, the attack of January 6th wasn’t a big deal, and Donald Trump wasn’t dangerous,” Cheney said Sunday. “I had to choose between lying and losing my position in House leadership.”
She remained unwavering in her belief that she did the right thing opposing the former president on January 6.
“No party, no nation, no people can defend and perpetuate a constitutional republic if they accept leaders who have gone to war with the rule of law, with the democratic process, with the Constitution itself,” Cheney said.
She also recently condemned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for suggesting he could pardon participants in the January 6 riot if it could be proven their prosecutions were politically tainted.
Cheney Detailed the Trump’s Role in Inciting Capitol Riot in Congressional Jan. 6 Report
Cheney wrote in the January 6 Committee report released in December that Trump lied to millions of Americans when he told them that the 2020 election had been stolen.
“What most of the public did not know before our investigation is this: Donald Trump’s own campaign officials told him early on that his claims of fraud were false. Donald Trump’s senior Justice Department officials—each appointed by Donald Trump himself—investigated the allegations and told him repeatedly that his fraud claims were false. Donald Trump’s White House lawyers also told him his fraud claims were false. From the beginning, Donald Trump’s fraud allegations were concocted nonsense, designed to prey upon the patriotism of millions of men and women who love our country,” Cheney wrote in the report. “No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. He is unfit for any office.”
She asserted in the report that Trump sat in the dining room adjacent to the Oval Office watching the riot unfold on television and did not act soon enough.
The riot began around 1 p.m., and rioters began entering the building around 2 p.m.
Trump issued tweets at 2:38 p.m. and 3:13 p.m. calling on the rioters to be peaceful. He waited until 4:15 p.m. to deliver his televised message telling rioters to go home, minutes after then President-elect Joe Biden issued a message calling on Trump to do so.
Riot Leaders Convicted of Sedition
Those who organized the riot are slowly being brought to justice.
Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three others were convicted of seditious conspiracy in early May. Tarrio was found guilty of creating a conspiracy to prevent the certification of the 2020 election via an encrypted chatroom.
Last week, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes received an 18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy of which he was convicted in November.
Liz Cheney Tells Students to Vote
Liz Cheney told students the best way to ensure that a repeat of January 6 never happens is to get out and vote.
“Cleta Mitchell, an election denier and adviser to former President Trump, told a gathering of Republicans recently that it is crucially important to make sure that college students don’t vote,” Cheney said. “Those who are trying to unravel the foundations of our republic, who are threatening the rule of law and the sanctity of our elections, know they can’t succeed if you vote.”
Mitchell is a prominent Washington, D.C. Republican election attorney who worked with Trump. She warned at a recent Republican National Committee gathering that increased voting on college campuses would make it harder for Republicans to win.
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John Rossomando was a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
