Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and the rest of the members of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot are not backing down from their inquiry merely because former President Donald Trump and certain allies of his have launched broadsides against it. On Twitter this week, Cheney shared a triumphant update about the progress of the riot investigation committee’s probe — including that the total number of witnesses who’ve been heard from by the panel is approaching 300. Trump filed a lawsuit to try and stop the committee from obtaining certain records from his administration, but Cheney expressed confidence about the prospects of dealing with that, too.
1/6 committee vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney says that they've heard from nearly 300 witnesses in their investigation -> https://t.co/siCxncxpdi
— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) December 9, 2021
As Cheney put it on Thursday:
‘The Committee has already met with nearly 300 witnesses; we hear from four more key figures in the investigation today. We are conducting multiple depositions and interviews every week. We have received exceptionally interesting and important documents from a number of witnesses, including Mark Meadows. He has turned over many texts from his private cell phone from January 6th… The investigation is firing on all cylinders. Do not be misled: President Trump is trying to hide what happened on January 6th and to delay and obstruct. We will not let that happen. The truth will come out.’
Cheney also noted that the riot investigation committee already scored a victory in the case that Trump brought to try and stop his records from getting revealed — although the proceedings have now moved on to an appeal stage. Check out the Congresswoman’s comments below:
Cheney is running for re-election, and she’s facing a Trump-endorsed challenger in the Republican primary race for her seat — but she continues to stand by her opposition to the former president’s lies about the integrity of last year’s election, which he has claimed was somehow rigged for Biden.
New: Jan. 6 committee chair Bennie Thompson and vice chair Liz Cheney say they will vote to hold Meadows in contempt next week: “Meadows’s flawed lawsuit won’t succeed at slowing down the committee’s investigation.”
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) December 9, 2021
Cheney has previously compared the scope of Trump’s rhetoric — which, in reality, amounts to an undercut to the democratic system in the United States — to what Communists are claiming about democracy. As Cheney put it, “When you listen to Donald Trump talk now, when you hear the language he’s using now, it is essentially the same things that the Chinese Communist Party, for example, says about the United States and our democracy… When [Trump] says that our system doesn’t work… when he suggests that it’s, you know, incapable of conveying the will of the people, you know, that somehow it’s failed — those are the same things that the Chinese government says about us… It’s very dangerous and damaging… and it’s not true.”
NEW: Mark Meadows’ lawsuit is a multi-faceted attack on the committee — but Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney say they plan to hold him in criminal contempt as soon as next week, despite the suit. The latest, w @joshgerstein @woodruffbets @nicholaswu12 https://t.co/sLTyjAEtmi
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 8, 2021
