AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
- Rep. Liz Cheney blasted former President Donald Trump’s recent comments on the 2020 election.
- The GOP lawmaker said Trump’s statements about the Capitol riot suggest “he’d do it all again.”
- Over the weekend, Trump made a series of controversial statements at a campaign-style rally.
Rep. Liz Cheney castigated former President Donald Trump Monday in response to his most recent comments about the 2020 presidential election and the January 6 Capitol riot.
Speaking at a Texas rally over the weekend, Trump issued a series of controversial statements, telling the crowd that he would consider pardoning Capitol riot defendants if he is reelected in 2024 and calling for nationwide protests if prosecutors investigating him and his business “do anything illegal.”
In a Sunday statement, Trump doubled down on his baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, falsely stating that former Vice President Mike Pence had the power to alter the electoral results but chose not to “exercise that power.”
On Monday, Cheney accused Trump for stoking extremism during the rally as he hints at a possible 2024 presidential run.
“Trump uses language he knows caused the Jan 6 violence; suggests he’d pardon the Jan 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy; threatens prosecutors; and admits he was attempting to overturn the election,” the Republican lawmaker tweeted. “He’d do it all again if given the chance.”
In an interview with NBC News, the lawmaker from Wyoming reiterated that idea.
“That just simply can’t be who we are as Americans,” she said. “It can’t be who we are as Republicans.”
Cheney has been a longtime, vocal critic of Trump. Earlier this month, the representative told ABC News that the former president’s inaction during the January 6 insurrection was unacceptable.
“Any man who would not do so, any man who would provoke a violent assault on the Capitol to stop the county of electoral votes, any man who would watch television as police officers were being beaten, as his supporters were invading the Capitol of the United States, is clearly unfit for future office, clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again,” she said.
Cheney is one of only two Republicans serving on the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois is the other GOP member.
Kinzinger also responded Sunday to Trump’s acknowledgement that he wanted Pence to overturn the 2020 election.
“This is an admission, and a massively un-American statement,” Kinzinger tweeted. “It is time for every Republican leader to pick a side… Trump or the Constitution, there is no middle on defending our nation anymore.”
The flurry of controversial statements from the former president prompted additional responses from several other DC players, including GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham, who pushed back against Trump’s Capitol rioter comments.
“I think it’s inappropriate,” the Republican from South Carolina said. “I don’t want to reinforce that defiling the Capitol was OK. I don’t want to do anything that would make this more likely in the future.”
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