CNN anchor Jim Acosta confronted Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on Wednesday over a House Republican subcommittee siding with President-elect Donald Trump and concluding that former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney should be prosecuted for investigating what occurred when Trump incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol after losing the 2020 election.
‘Isn’t this banana republic stuff?!” Acosta wondered at one point.
Wrapping up their own investigation into the January 6 Capitol riots, Republicans on the House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight released a report this week arguing that Cheney’s communications with former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson were akin to witness tampering and that she should be subjected to a criminal probe.
“Liz Cheney could be in a lot of trouble based on the evidence obtained by the subcommittee, which states that ‘numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, and these violations should be investigated by the FBI.’ Thank you to Congressman Barry Loudermilk on a job well done,” Trump said in a 3 a.m. Truth Social post on Wednesday, praising the House Administration Committee Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA).
The Republicans’ report, which essentially parrots Trump’s argument that he was not to blame for a MAGA mob storming the Capitol as Congress sought to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory, was released a month before the president-elect returns to the White House. The findings seem to reinforce Trump’s wishes to see Cheney and other members of the January 6 committee jailed for their participation.
Cheney, for her part, reacted to the report by saying it “intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did.”
Interviewing Burchett on Wednesday morning, Acosta brought up Trump’s reaction to Loudermilk’s findings and noted that the incoming president has called for the January 6 committee members to be imprisoned.
“It recommends that there be a criminal investigation into Liz Cheney. Do you think there should be a criminal investigation into Liz Cheney, one of your former colleagues?” Acosta asked.
“If she broke the law, why should she be exempt?” Burchett shot back. “I guarantee if [CNN correspondent] Manu Raju or you broke the law, they’d drag you all into court in chains. And why should she be exempt?”The CNN anchor wondered if the pro-Trump congressman actually believed Cheney broke the law, prompting Burchett to say she committed illegal acts if she “altered evidence” and “coached witnesses” as laid out in the GOP report.
“What’s the evidence of that? I mean, the report came out just days after Donald Trump said the member of the committee should go to jail,” Acosta retorted. “Aren’t they just doing his bidding?”
Referencing the revelation that the House Ethics Committee will release the results of its probe into former congressman Matt Gaetz over allegations of sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl, Burchett groused about the lack of “evidence against Matt Gaetz” other than a Congressional report.
“You’ve got a report. It’s the same thing,” Burchett continued. “That’s why people don’t trust the media. You have a double standard for one and not for the other! If she didn’t break the law, she’s fine. But if she did break the law, she should be held accountable. What is wrong with them asking questions?!”
Noting that Burchett once again brought up the Gaetz report, which he said earlier in the interview was being released as part of a “revenge” plot against the Trump ally, Acosta pressed the congressman on whether Republicans were going down an authoritarian road.
“The House Ethics Committee is voting to release this report, presumably with some Republican help,” the host said. “This is a House Republican report on January 6 recommending that Liz Cheney be criminally investigated. Isn’t this banana republic stuff?”
Apoplectic over Acosta’s question, Burchett reiterated that Cheney would be “fine” as long as she “didn’t break the law,” claiming that she shouldn’t be “exempt” from prosecution.
The back-and-forth between the two would go on for a few more minutes, including Acosta grilling Burchett on whether House Republicans were just looking to “go after Trump’s political enemies” while the conservative lawmaker insisted that lawbreakers “ought to be brought to justice” regardless of political allegiance.
Meanwhile, after Burchett repeatedly dismissed the findings of the January 6 committee, Acota wondered once more: “Is this about Trump getting revenge and House Republicans going along with it?”
