This week, ahead of a vote by the House on a measure to create a select committee to investigate the deadly January riot at the Capitol, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) announced that she’d be voting in favor of the move. Alongside Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who like Cheney was one of the comparatively few House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection after the riot, she ended up just one of two House Republicans to vote for that select committee. In a statement explaining her position, Cheney insisted that leaders must “confront” the “threats” of Trump’s “attacks on our Constitution.”
As Cheney noted, ex-President Trump has not let up with his lying about the integrity of last year’s presidential election, and these lies provided the explicit pretense for the attack on the Capitol. It’s not just ignorance on the former president’s part — it’s a willful disregard for the truth in favor of whatever happens to suit his personal ambitions. It’s a transformation of Trump’s delusional self-obsession into an entire political approach.
Cheney commented as follows:
‘The attack on January 6th was an unprecedented assault on Congress and the functioning of our democratic process. That day, almost all of us recognized immediately the gravity of what had occurred. Since January 6th, the courage of my party’s leaders has faded. But the threat to our Republic has not. On an almost daily basis, Donald Trump repeats the same statements that provoked violence before. His attacks on our Constitution are accelerating. Our responsibility is to confront these threats, not appease and deflect.’
Getting into more specifics regarding the issue, Cheney added as follows:
‘It is right to be wary of an overly partisan inquiry. But Congress is obligated to conduct a full investigation of the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814. Our nation, and the families of the brave law enforcement officers who were injured defending us or died following the attack, deserve answers. I believe this select committee is our only remaining option. I will vote to support it.’
The committee, like other Congressional panels, will have powers like the ability to issue subpoenas. Its creation is coming after Senate Republicans filibustered a bill that would have created an independent, non-Congressional commission to investigate the violence. Read Cheney’s comments by clicking on the post below:
I've said before that a bipartisan independent commission would've been the best way to investigate the Jan. 6th attack.
⁰That effort was unfortunately blocked. A select committee is now the only remaining option. I will vote to support it. See my full stmt: pic.twitter.com/C073yKWRWH
— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) June 30, 2021
