Asked this Sunday morning on CNN’s State of the Union for her personal stance on whether the guilt held by former President Donald Trump rises to the level of criminal culpability, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — the vice chair of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot — said as follows:
‘I think that Donald Trump, the violation of his oath of office, the violation of the Constitution that he engaged in, is the most serious misconduct of any president in the history of our nation… The Department of Justice certainly is very focused, based on what we see publicly, on what is the largest criminal investigation in American history. There’s no doubt in my mind that the [former] president of the United States is unfit for further office. Any man or woman who would conduct themselves the way that he did in attempting to overturn an election and stay in power must never again be anywhere close to the Oval Office.’
Check out Cheney’s comments below:
Liz Cheney on CNN: "I think that Donald Trump, the violation of his oath of office, the violation of the constitution that he engaged in, is the most serious misconduct of any president in the history of our nation." pic.twitter.com/vxDMk37G2o
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 24, 2022
Technically, Trump’s yet to formally confirm he’ll be running for the presidency again in 2024, but it seems abundantly obvious that save for some act of God that’s his plan. In recent public hearings, the riot panel highlighted the extreme level of personal responsibility Trump holds for some of the more destructive impacts of his post-election rampages — and the evidence the committee outlined helps firmly establish the corrupt intent on the then-president’s part. He wasn’t unaware of documentation of the security of the last election; he was ignoring it. Figures around the then-president were repeatedly informing him of the truth of what happened, but he pressed on anyway. A draft of a presidential tweet shared by the riot committee contains an explicit push for a march to the Capitol on January 6. Although it wasn’t posted, it shows his intentions. After the riot, Trump — according to video obtained and revealed by the panel — complained about the prospect of calling the election “over.”
According to other details made available by Cheney’s committee, Trump sought to go to the Capitol on January 6, a plan evidently in the works before the day actually rolled around. After his rally speech that day, when he got in the presidential vehicle and was pushed by his lead Secret Service agent to return to the White House rather than go to the Capitol, he still resisted. What the committee has revealed makes it an unmistakable fact that Trump was singularly focused on overturning the presidential election outcome. There was no altruistic, good-faith effort to reveal legitimately feared fraud. Rudy Giuliani, who was closely involved in Trump’s post-election efforts to meddle with the outcome, admitted to Arizona state House Speaker Rep. Rusty Bowers (R) he didn’t have evidence to back up key assertions he was making. Bowers himself shared that revelation in recent public testimony to the riot committee. The panel will be holding additional public hearings later this year as its underlying investigation continues.
