Liz Cheney Warns Insurrectionists That They Will Be Held Accountable

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On Tuesday, the House committee investigating the January riot at the Capitol held its first hearing, which featured testimony from four police officers who participated in the defense of the Capitol against the openly murderous crowd of Trump supporters who gathered there on that fateful day. Alongside Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is one of just two Republicans on the committee, and on Tuesday, she spoke out on Twitter (in addition to her mid-hearing remarks) to bring attention to the heroism of the officers present on Tuesday.

In a Twitter post from after the hearing in response to a statement from Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, Cheney described those officers as “true heroes.” In his own statement, Manger said that he was “proud” of the officers who spoke before the committee. Those from Manger’s agency who participated in the hearing included officer Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, both of whom shared their firsthand experiences of the devastating violence on January 6. As Gonell put it, explaining part of what happened at the Capitol: “I could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself, ‘This is how I’m going to die, trampled defending this entrance.'” Scores of officers were violently assaulted by the Trump supporters participating in the attack.

Meanwhile, over on her official (rather than personal) Twitter account, Cheney added at a different point as follows:

‘Thank you to Officer Fanone and Officer Hodges of the [D.C. Police Department] & Private First Class Dunn and Sergeant Gonell of [the U.S. Capitol Police] for their bravery. Their heroism will never be forgotten. We must get to the truth and ensure that what happened on Jan. 6th never happens again.’

Cheney also shared footage of her own opening remarks from the hearing, insisting that “We cannot leave the violence of January 6th – and its causes – uninvestigated” and adding that “We must know what happened at the Capitol and the White House on that day.” Check out comments from Cheney below:

Besides Gonell and Dunn, D.C. officers Daniel Hodges and Michael Fanone also spoke before the committee on Tuesday. Both Hodges and Fanone also sustained physical assaults perpetrated by Trump supporters. In Hodges’s case, footage has at this point widely circulated showing how he was at one point pinned against a door by a portion of the mob, leaving him trapped and temporarily unable to extricate himself from the crowd as the Trump supporters attempted to force themselves ahead. Fanone, meanwhile, was dragged down a set of stairs at the Capitol, repeatedly tased on his head, and beaten, and he suffered a heart attack in connection to these brutal assaults by supporters of Donald Trump.