Officials at the Republican National Committee (RNC) moved forward this week with a resolution to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) over their involvement in the House committee investigating the Capitol riot — and neither Cheney nor Kinzinger are backing down from their commitment to uncover the truth surrounding the riot and its causes. Censure merely constitutes a formal rebuke, in contrast to the originally proposed call for Cheney and Kinzinger to be booted from the House Republican conference, but the move — which was seemingly set for approval this week — shows party leaders’ commitment to Trump, even to the point of apparently going along with his eager push to gloss over deadly violence.
The fact the RNC is censuring Cheney and Kinzinger for investigating January 6 and not condemning Trump for causing January 6 is absolutely demented.
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) February 4, 2022
Cheney, who serves as the vice chair of the riot investigation panel, commented as follows:
‘The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy. I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what.’
I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what. (2/2) https://t.co/HtgFzrCipd
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) February 4, 2022
Trump has now repeatedly brought up his inclination to issue pardons for rioters if he wins the presidency again. At a recent rally in Texas, he told the crowd that “if I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. We will treat them fairly… And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly.” In a later interview with the right-wing outlet Newsmax, Trump claimed that “some of these people are not guilty, many of these people are not guilty” — although many rioters’ crimes were literally captured on camera. Trump seems, though, to be willing to try and push aside what happened to the point of denying the documented reality in front of him — which is obviously in character. Throughout making his attempted excuses for what went on, Trump has repeatedly made no distinction between those with a part in the violence, suggesting that he’s fine with writing off hundreds of brutal assaults on police officers, threats to the lives of top government officials, and evidence-backed charges of seditious conspiracy, among other serious issues.
Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 4, 2022
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), one of seven Senate Republicans who voted for Trump’s conviction on an impeachment charge of incitement of insurrection after the riot, expressed confusion at Republican Party officials’ preparations to censure Cheney and Kinzinger. As he put it on Twitter: “The RNC is censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger because they are trying to find out what happened on January 6th – HUH?”
The RNC is censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger because they are trying to find out what happened on January 6th – HUH?
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) February 4, 2022
