The committee noted that Trump was told he lost several 2020 presidential elections. times but lied to the American people that his defeat was due to fraud.
In his opening remarks, Committee Vice Chairman Cheney who voted to impeach Trump and was removed as Republican No. 3 in the House of Representatives, vowed world that he will hear evidencemore how half dozen former White House staff in Trump administration, all of who were in West Wing of White House on January 6″.
“You will hear evidence that “the President is not really want put something out off riots or asks his supporters to leave,” Cheney said. “You will hear President Trump yelling and getting ‘very angry’ at advisers. who told him that he needed to do something more”.
Cheney then said that the President had made his support for crowd of trump supporters on on January 6, 2021, who began chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”
“Aware of rioters chant “hang Mike Pence,” the president replied with such a mood: “Maybe our supporters have the right idea.” Mike Pence “deserved it,” Cheney said.
Cheney did not expand on who or how a lot of people showed that Trump supported the calls of his supporters to hang Pence. Cheney’s spokesman did not immediately respond to a request. for comment early Friday.
This was reported by the Washington Post. last month, when the House Select Committee collected testimony that the head of the White House of Staff Mark Meadows remarked to others that Trump made it clear that support for hanging pence. Check of Meadows comment characterization of Trump’s reaction to Pence was given to the committee at least one witness, according to people habitual with investigation, but people did not describe the tone with which the comment was made. They talked on condition of anonymity to be more frankly on a sensitive subject.
Representatives for Trump and Pence did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Friday morning, Trump denied on Truth Social, its social network that he says he supports hanging Pence.
“I NEVER said or even thought of saying, “Hang Mike Pence,” he wrote. “It’s either made up story someone who wants to be a star or FAKE NEWS!”
Cheney’s opening statement helped set tone on presentation that served as a direct reminder of brutal violence unleashed by the mob that day. Footage and testimony shown at Thursday’s hearing showed that Caroline Edwards, a US Capitol police officer, was seriously injured. in a riot described as a “massacre”.
“The violence was not an accident,” said start of hearing. “This represented the last most desperate chance stop transmission of power. And finally, Donald Trump is President of United States – spurred on the crowd of domesticated enemies of constitution march down Capitol and undermine American democracy.”
Trump Told People About Pence While Watching on television when rioters laid siege to the Capitol, The Post previously reported. Minutes after Pence and his family endangered by Trump supporters and forced to flee the Senate floor, Trump tweeted that the vice president lacked “courage”.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the guts to do what should were made to protect our country and our constitution, giving states chance certify corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones they were previously asked to confirm,” Trump tweeted. “The US wants truth!”
Trump went on to falsely claim that Pence had the right to cancel the 2020 election during the congressional vote count. of electoral college voteswhich he did not. Such false the claims helped ignite the chant to hang Pence that erupted during the Capitol riot.
Cheney’s statement about what Trump allegedly said about Pence was one of most revealing moments in night full of them. Journalist Ben Jacobs tweeted that there were “audible noises of suffocating inside the room” when Cheney spoke of presumed trump support for hanging pence.
Cheney received support from conservatives and liberals on social media for what has been described as “balanced, sober, methodical” introductory speech.
“The Liz Cheney presentation will be, in my opinion go down in in history books: Congress on its own best, truth-telling in its best American democracy in its best” wrote Bill Kristol, longtime conservative commentator who split with Republican Party over Trump.
Joyce White Vance, professor in university of Alabama School of Law, agreed: “If you are the Department of Justice, you want jury made up of Liz Cheney”.
Incredible to watch this presentation from Liz Cheney, of all gopers. One of the most amazing, but the most basic- profiles in political courage we have seen in our lives.
— Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) June 10, 2022
Closer to the end of her statement, Cheney, whose decision to join democrats on investigative panel It has earned she’s serious primary challenge and Trump’s hostility sent another signal to fellow Republicans who dissolved the committee work. Among them was Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who told Fox News this week that most Americans won’t watch the hearings, calling it “garbage.”
“I tell this to my Republican colleagues who protecting the unprotected,” Cheney said. “The day will come when Donald Trump will be gone, but your dishonor remain”.
Jacqueline Alemany, Josh Dawsey, and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.
