The House special committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection by extremist supporters of then-President Donald Trump hopes to secure the cooperation of former Vice President Mike Pence, who certified Joe Biden’s electoral victory despite pressure from the White House and the violent. mob that stormed the US Capitol
Congresswoman Liz Cheney, vice chair of the bipartisan panel, called Pence a hero for standing up to Donald Trump’s efforts to “overthrow the will of the people” that day and said the committee “looks forward to” working with him.
“We look forward to continuing the cooperation we have had from members of the former vice president’s team and we look forward to their cooperation,” Cheney said in an interview with NBC Today on Thursday morning.
She said: “Former Vice President Pence was a hero on January 6. He rejected the pressure of the former president, he did his duty and the nation should be very grateful for the actions he took that day. “
The panel is chaired by Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who told CNN: “We came dangerously close to losing our democracy” when thousands of Trump supporters, incited by the then president in the final days of his term as president, accused to the US Capitol on January 6 last year trying to prevent members of Congress, who had to flee, from officially certifying Biden’s election victory in November 2020.
The result of the election was certified hours after the removal of the Capitol, presiding over the official act Pence, in the position of vice president as president of the Senate.
Cheney, the Republican congresswoman representing Wyoming and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who served in the George W Bush administration, spoke of Trump pressuring Pence to refuse to certify Biden’s victory and that the then-president did not demanded it. that the mob left the Capitol even while watching the violent insurrection on live television at the White House.
When asked if the panel was considering recommending criminal charges against Trump, Cheney said: “Certainly, we will be looking at that, there are important questions before the committee, such as whether the action or inaction of former President Trump attempted to obstruct an official proceeding.” Congress, tried to delay the counting of electoral votes.
She added: “We also know that it was a supreme breach of duty, the President of the United States refuses to take action to stop a violent assault on Congress, to stop a violent assault on any of the co-equal powers of government. , that is clearly a breach of duty. “
Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to block the release by the National Archives to the committee of relevant materials related to his conduct on January 6 of last year and in the run-up to that event, the assault. more serious to the US Capitol War of 1812. Trump claims he is protected by executive privilege because he was president at the time, a claim rejected by the Biden White House and lower courts.
Cheney said: “We will not let the former president hide behind these false claims of privilege and we will get to the bottom of … everything that happened that day.”
When asked if the United States came close to having valid presidential election results overthrown, Cheney said the country “was very close.”
“Our institutions were maintained, but they were only maintained because of people who were willing to resist pressure from former President Trump, people in his own Justice Department … state-level elected officials who stood up to him and law enforcement officials. here at the Capitol. We need to recognize how important it is … that it never happens again. “
He warned that the “threat continues.”
“Too many in my own party are hugging that former president, they are looking the other way, they are minimizing the danger… This is how democracies die. We simply cannot allow that to happen, ”he said.
Meanwhile, in an interview for the New York Times podcast, Cheney confirmed an anecdote from January 6 of last year, when he encountered Congressman Jim Jordan, a fellow Republican but a far-right loyalist to Trump who had been lobbying the lie that Biden didn’t. win the elections, on the floor of the House.
Jordan had been standing in the hallway as legislators were escorted away from the invading mob, and he told Cheney, as he approached her, the Times relayed: “We need to get the ladies out of the hall. Let ‘me help you.”
To which she snapped back, after removing her offered hand, the Times reported and Cheney stated, “Get away from me. Fuck, you did this. “
www.theguardian.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism