In a rare moment on Fox News, its viewers heard the truth about January 6 — thanks to rep. Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans serving on the committee investigating the attack on the Capitol. Despite Bret Baier’s attempts to push the Fox/Trump narrative that the Jan. 6 committee is biased and a sham, Cheney has debunked talking point after talking point.
At the start of the interview, Baier attempted to assign some of the blame for Jan. 6 to Democratic leaders and Capitol police. “What will the committee’s report have to say about why assets, like the National Guard, weren’t primed and ready?” Is there already evidence taken on the decisions of Speaker Pelosi or the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House and Senate in this regard? ” He asked.
More from Rolling Stone
“We have a whole team – we have five different teams in the investigation – one of them is totally focused on all of these Capitol security issues and the Capitol police response, the National Guard response , the response from the Capitol Police Board, what was happening at the Pentagon that day,” Cheney said. “That’s the whole point of the investigation, you’ll see that in our report, you’ll probably see an upcoming hearing.”
Then she brought down the hammer: “But what we’re not going to do, Bret, is blame the Capitol police, blame law enforcement, for the armed mob of Donald Trump that he sent to the Capitol.”
“OK, but did you…” Baier said, trying to cut him off.
But Cheney continued: “Obviously there have been intelligence failures. Obviously the security should have worked better than it did. But it was a crowd that Donald Trump sent to the Capitol, and I think it’s important to keep an eye on it.
Video: Can Liz Cheney be re-elected after January 6 hearings?
Cheney also denied Baier’s claim that Trump had offered National Guard troops to defend the Capitol, citing public testimony from Trump’s acting Secretary of Defense at the time, Chris Miller.
“We also know that on January 6, while the attack was in progress, Donald Trump made no phone calls to anyone at the Pentagon. He didn’t make a single phone call to anyone at the Justice Department to say, ‘Deploy law enforcement,’ Cheney said, adding, ‘The idea that he issued an order one way or another is inconsistent with the facts.”
Cheney then dismissed Baier’s attempts to call the committee unfair because the other side can’t “present a defense, there’s no cross-examination” and because Republican members of the committee don’t were not nominated by their own party.
The congresswoman responded by pointing out that House GOP minority Kevin McCarthy himself said a “bipartisan outside committee” should investigate the attack, but later withdrew his support and influenced the Senate’s rejection of a bill that would establish an outside inquiry.
“After negotiating with the Democrats and securing all the terms he wanted, he pulled the rug out from under the Republicans who supported him and ensured he was voted out of the Senate,” Cheney said. “Once the outer and bipartisan commission was defeated, the only alternative we had left was this committee.” McCarthy also withdrew all of her committee nominations after Pelosi rejected two “with good reason,” she added.
“The idea now that somehow the committee is unable to figure out the facts of what happened because Kevin McCarthy pulled his nominees is absurd,” Cheney said before pointing out that all the witnesses so far have been Republicans.
Later in the interview, Cheney pointedly noted that other conservative outlets led by Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch have called Trump unfit for office.
“Look, it’s not just me saying Donald Trump is unfit for office. These are other entities owned by Rupert Murdoch,” Cheney said. “It’s the New York Post in their Friday editorial. It’s the the wall street journal – said the same thing after our hearing on Thursday evening.
Thursday evening hearing included testimony from two former White House staffers who resigned following the attack and focused on Trump’s damning inaction while the Capitol was under siege. The committee suspended for the month of August but promised further hearings when it meets again in September.
The best of Rolling Stone
Comments are closed.